Cassette slant insertion preventing stopper for cassette type recording/reproducing apparatus

ABSTRACT

A cassette type recording and reproducing apparatus in which during an eject operation of a tape cassette, a cam driven lever  28  is kicked by a cam  31  and a cassette discharge lever  51  is rotated by the cam driven lever  28,  whereby a tape cassette  1  in a cassette stage is pushed out in a cassette discharge direction by the cassette discharge lever  51  is provided with cam lever control mechanism  50  for positionally regulating the cam driven lever  28  with some degree of freedom within a fixed range θ 12  at the intermediate position of a swing range θ 11  in which the cam driven lever  28  is rotated by the cam  31.  Therefore, a cam driven lever can be prevented from violently colliding against a cassette discharge lever in the course of a loading operation of a tape cassette.

This application is a divisional of prior application Ser. No.09/048,931 filed Mar. 26, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,883,756 which is adivisional of prior application Ser. No. 08/834,214, filed Apr. 15,1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,854,723.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a cassette type recording/reproducingapparatus for recording/reproducing information by using a tapecassette, such as a video cassette recorder or the like.

2. Description of the Prior Art

There has been known a conventional technique shown in FIGS. 1A to 1J,which is relating to a cassette type recording/reproducing apparatussuch as a video recorder or the like. In the conventional techniqueshown in FIGS. 1A to 1C, a cassette discharge lever 25 is securedthrough a vertical supporting pin 26 to a bottom plate 6 a of a cassettestage 6 so as to be freely rotatable in directions as indicated byarrows f,f′ within a horizontal plane, and a cam driven lever 28 forrotationally driving the cassette discharge lever 25 is secured througha horizontal supporting pin 29 to a side plate 6 b of a cassette stage 6so as to be freely rotatable in directions as indicated by arrows g,g′within a vertical plane. The cam driven lever 28 is rotationally urgedin the direction of the arrow g′ by a torsion coil spring 30 to bringthe lower end 28 a of the cam driven lever 28 into contact with theother end 25 b of the cassette discharge lever 25 from the direction ofthe arrow g′ at all times. Further, a cam 31 which is located so as tobe overlapped with a horizontal movement locus of the lower end 28 a ofthe cam driven lever 28 is secured to a chassis side plate 32.

As shown in FIG. 1A, when a tape cassette 1 is inserted into thecassette stage 6 from a cassette insertion port of a front panel (notshown) in a direction of an arrow a, one end 25 a of the cassettedischarge lever 25 is pushed in the direction of the arrow a by a frontend 1 a of the tape cassette 1, and the cam driven lever 28 is pushedagainst the torsion coil spring 30 in the direction of the arrow g bythe other end 25 b of the cassette discharge lever 25.

In course of an eject operation of the tape cassette 1 from a cassettemount position to a cassette insertion position in the direction of thearrow b by the cassette stage 6, the lower end 28 a of the cam drivenlever 28 is relatively kicked from the direction of the arrow a by thecam 31 as shown in FIG. 1B to rotationally drive the cam driven lever 28in the direction of the arrow g′. Further, as shown in FIG. 1A, theother end 25 b of the cassette discharge lever 25 is pushed in thedirection of an arrow f′ by the cam driven lever 28, and the tapecassette 1 in the cassette stage 6 is pushed in the direction of thearrow a′ by one end 25 a of the cassette discharge lever 25, whereby thetape cassette 1 is violently pushed out of the cassette insertion portin the direction of the arrow a′ so that the tape cassette 1 can beeasily pulled out at the outside of the front panel.

However, in the above-described prior art, the lower end 28 a of the camdriven lever 28 is brought into contact with the other end 25 b of thecassette discharge lever 25 from the direction of the arrow g′ by thetorsion coil spring 30, whereby the lower end 28 a of the can drivenlever 28 is kept to be overlapped with the cam 31.

Accordingly, in this application, in the course of a loading operationof the tape cassette 1 from the cassette insertion position to thecassette mount position in the direction of the arrow a by the cassettestage 6, as shown in of FIG. 1C, the cam driven lever 28 is once rotatedin the direction of the arrow g against the torsion coil spring 30 bythe cam 31, and then the cam driven lever 28 is violently rotated in thedirection of the arrow g′ by the torsion coil spring 30 at theinstantaneous time when the cam driven lever 28 gets over the cam 31 inthe direction of the arrow a, so that the cam driven lever 28 violentlycollides against the other end 25 b of the cassette discharge lever 25from the direction of the arrow g′ and it causes an uncomfortablecollision noise “click sound” at all times.

The every-time occurrence of the uncomfortable collision noise asdescribed above causes questions on the quality of products, and thusthis is unfavorable. In addition, when the cam driven lever 28 violentlycollides against the other end 25 b of the cassette discharge lever 25from the direction of the arrow g′ in the course of the loadingoperation of the tape cassette 1, the cassette discharge lever 25 isrotationally driven in the direction of the arrow f′ which correspondsto the cassette discharge direction, and the tape cassette 1 in thecassette stage is displaced by the one end 25 a thereof in the directionof the arrow a′ which corresponds to the cassette discharge direction.Accordingly, there occurs such a cassette loading miss that the tapecassette 1 is not accurately engaged with plural cassette positioningpins when the tape cassette 1 is loaded to the cassette mount position.In order to prevent the positional displacement of the tape cassette 1in the cassette stage 6, a clamp force in the cassette stage 6 isrequired to be increased. If the clamp force to the tape cassette 1 inthe cassette stage 6 is increased, a strong force is needed when thetape cassette 1 is manually inserted into the cassette stage 6, and alsoa strong force is needed when the tape cassette 1 is discharged by thecassette discharge lever 25 for ejection. Therefore, there occursvarious problems, for example, the rigidity of the cassette dischargelever 25 and the cam driven lever 28 must be increased.

The present invention has been implemented to solve the above problems,and it has an object to provide a cassette type recording/reproducingapparatus which can beforehand prevent a cam driven lever from violentlycolliding against a cassette discharge lever in the course of a loadingoperation of a tape cassette.

There has been also known another conventional technique as shown inFIG. 1D, which is relating to a cassette type recording/reproducingapparatus such as a video recorder or the like. In this conventionaltechnique, an opening/closing lid 5 for opening/closing a cassetteinsertion port 4 of a front panel 3 from the inside is secured to acassette stage 6 through a supporting pin 7 so as to be freely rotatablein the directions indicated by arrows c,c′, and a cassette press memberis constructed by the opening/closing lid 5.

That is, as indicated by a dotted line in FIG. 1D, in such a state thatthe cassette stage serving as cassette feeding means is returned to acassette insertion position P₁ corresponding to the inside position ofthe cassette insertion port 4 from the direction of the arrow a′, theopening/closing lid 5 is rotated in the direction of the arrow c′ toclose the cassette insertion port 4 from the inside by theopening/closing lid 5. In a cassette loading operation, when the tapecassette 2 is inserted from the cassette insertion port 4 into thecassette stage 6 from the direction of the arrow a, the opening/closinglid 5 is pushed and opened in the direction of the arrow c by the tapecassette 2, and also the tape cassette 2 is pressed and fixed onto thebottom plate 6 a of the cassette stage 6 by the cassette press force inthe direction of the arrow d′ of the opening/closing lid 5.

Thereafter, the cassette stage 6 is horizontally retracted from thecassette insertion position P₁ into the cassette retract position P₂ inthe direction of the arrow a by a cassette loading mechanism (notshown), and then the cassette stage 6 is vertically descended to thecassette mount position P₃ in the direction of the arrow b. When thetape cassette 2 is horizontally loaded to the cassette mount positionP₃, the tape cassette 2 is mounted horizontally onto plural cassetteposition pins 8, and the tape cassette 2 is upwardly pushed to theposition of a height H₁ from the bottom plate 6 a of the cassette stage6. In addition, the tape cassette 2 is pressed and fixed onto the pluralcassette positioning pins 8 by the cassette press force in the directionof the arrow d′ of the opening/closing lid 5, and the front lid 2A ofthe tape cassette is opened upwardly.

After the cassette loading operation, a magnetic tape in the tapecassette 2 is pulled out from the cassette by the tape loading mechanismand loaded onto a rotating head drum (not shown) to perform informationrecording/reproducing operation. After the informationrecording/reproducing operation, the cassette stage 6 is returned in thedirections of arrows b′,a′from the cassette mount position P₃ via thecassette retract position P₂ to the cassette insertion position P₁ by areversing operation to the cassette loading operation, and finally thetape cassette 2 is discharged to the outside of the cassette insertionport 4. At this time, when the tape cassette 2 is pulled out in thedirection of the arrow a′ from the cassette insertion port 4, theopening/closing lid 5 is rotated in the direction of the arrow c′ andthe cassette insertion port 4 is automatically closed from the inside,as indicated by a dotted line of FIG. 1D.

According to the above-described prior art, the cassette insertion port4 of the front panel 3 is opened/closed from the inside by theopening/closing lid 5 which is freely rotatably secured to the cassettestage 6, and reciprocatively moved between the cassette insertionposition P₁ and the cassette mount position P₃ together with thecassette stage 6, and the opening/closing lid is also used as a cassettepress member for pressing onto the bottom plate 6 a of the cassettestage 6 the tape cassette 2 which is inserted from the cassetteinsertion port 4 into the cassette stage 6. Therefore, the number ofparts and the number of fabrication steps can be reduced to promotereduction of the cost. In addition, a proper portion of the tapecassette 2 which is located at a rear side a movable space of the frontlid 2A of the tape cassette 2 can be pressed by the opening/closing lid5, so that the cassette type recording/reproducing apparatus of thisprior art has high resistance to external disturbance or the like.

However, in this prior art, in such a state that the cassette stage 6 ismoved from the cassette insertion position P₁ to the cassette mountposition P₃ in the directions of the arrows a,b to load the tapecassette 2 to the cassette mount position P₃ as indicated by a solidline of FIG. 1D, the cassette insertion port 4 of the front panel 3 isleft opened. Therefore, there is such a risk that a next tape cassette 2is erroneously inserted from the cassette insertion port 4 (i.e.,cassette double insertion), another foreign matter is erroneouslyinserted from-the cassette insertion port 4 or the like.

The present invention has been further implemented to solve the aboveproblem, and has another object to provide a cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus in which the cassette insertion port ofthe front panel is opened/closed from the inside by an opening/closinglid which is freely rotatably secured to a cassette stage and movedtogether with a cassette stage, and which can prevent a cassette doubleinsertion, etc. in a cassette loading operation in advance.

Further, there has been known another prior art shown in FIG. 1E, whichis relating to the cassette type recording/reproducing apparatus such asa video recorder or the like. In this prior art, when the tape cassette2 is inserted from the cassette insertion port 4 of the front panel 3into the cassette stage 6 serving as the cassette feeding means in thedirection of the arrow a, the tape cassette 2 is pressed and fixed ontothe bottom plate 6a of the cassette stage 6 by the cassette press member5 which is secured to the cassette stage 6.

Thereafter, the cassette stage 6 is horizontally pulled from thecassette insertion position P₁ to the cassette retract position P₂ inthe direction of the arrow a by the cassette loading mechanism (notshown), and then vertically descended to the cassette mount position P₃in the direction of the arrow b to horizontally load the tape cassette 2to the cassette mount position P₃ At this time, the tape cassette 2 ishorizontally mounted on the plural cassette positioning pins 8, andpushed upwardly to the height H₁ from the bottom plate 6 a of thecassette stage 6. At the same time, the tape cassette 2 is pressed andfixed onto the plural cassette positioning pins 8 by the cassette pressmember, and the front lid 2A of the tape cassette 2 is upwardly opened.

After the cassette loading operation, the magnetic tape in the tapecassette 2 is pulled out from the cassette by the tape loading mechanismand loaded onto the rotating head drum (not shown) to perform theinformation recording/reproducing operation. After therecording/reproducing operation, the cassette stage 6 is returned fromthe cassette mount position P₃ through the cassette retract position P₂to the cassette insertion position P₁ in the directions of the arrowsb′, a′ by the counter operation to the cassette loading operation, andthe tape cassette 2 is discharged to the outside of the cassetteinsertion port 4.

In the above-described cassette type recording/reproducing apparatus,the cassette press member 5 must be disposed to be displaced nearer tothe cassette discharge direction side (in the direction of the arrow a′)than the opening/closing space S₁ of the front lid 2A in order toprevent the interference between the cassette press member 5 and thefront lid 2A of the tape cassette 2.

Accordingly, in this type of cassette type recording/reproducingapparatus, the cassette press member 5 can never press the upper portionof the front lid 2A portion which is the tip of the tape cassette 2, sothat no countermeasure cannot be taken to the insertion of the tapecassette at an upwardly slant angle (θ₁) as indicated by a solid line ofFIG. 1E to the horizontal reference indicated by a one-dotted chain lineof FIG. 1E when the tape cassette 2 is inserted from the cassetteinsertion port 4 into the cassette stage 6 in the direction of the arrowa. A space S₂ as indicated by a one-dotted chain line of FIG. 1Ecorresponds to a horizontal moving space of the cassette press member 5,and thus a fixed stopper for preventing the slant insertion of the tapecassette 2 cannot be disposed in the space S₂.

Accordingly, when the tape cassette 2 is violently inserted into thecassette stage 6 as indicated by the solid line of Fig. 1E, the priorart has a risk that the tape cassette 2 is obliquely inserted at anupwardly slant angle (θ₁). Further, when the tape cassette 2 is loadedto the cassette mount position as indicated by the dotted line of FIG.1E while obliquely inserted into the cassette stage 6, not only the tapecassette 2 cannot be accurately held by the plural cassette positioningpins 8, but also it runs on to various guides, resulting in a cassetteloading miss.

Further object of the present invention is to provide a cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus which can prevent a tape cassette frombeing obliquely inserted into a cassette stage in advance.

There has been further known a conventional technique show in FIG. 1F,which is relating to a cassette type recording/reproducing apparatussuch as a video tape recorder or the like. In this prior art, two typesof tape cassettes 1 and 2 which are different in size (D₁, D₂) can beproperly used. In this type of cassette type recording/reproducingapparatus, a cassette identifying member 9 for identifying the type(size) of the tape cassettes 1,2, a cassette insertion guide 10 which isswitched in accordance with the identification result of the cassetteidentifying member 9, and a lock lever (not shown) for locking thecassette identifying member 9 and the cassette insertion guide 10 at aposition which is downwardly escaped (shifted) from the cassetteinsertion space, are disposed inside the cassette insertion port 4 whichis a laterally elongated opening formed in the front panel 3.

The cassette stage 6 serving as the cassette feeding means is disposedat the rear side of the cassette insertion guide 10, and there isdisposed a cassette loading mechanism for reciprocatively moving thecassette stage 6 in the directions of the arrows a,b and a′,b′ along asubstantially L-shaped moving locus among the cassette insertionposition P₁, the cassette retracting position P₂ at the rear side of thecassette insertion position and the cassette mount position P₃ at thelower side of the cassette retracting position. In the cassette loadingoperation, the tape cassette 1,2 is selectively inserted from thedirection of the arrow a into the cassette stage 6. At this time, thetype (size) of the tape cassette 1,2 is identified by the cassetteidentifying block 9 to switch the cassette insertion guide block 10.

That is, when a large-size tape cassette 2 is inserted, the large-sizetape cassette 2 is identified by the cassette identifying member 9, andthe cassette insertion guide 10 is downwardly escaped from the cassetteinsertion space together with the cassette identifying member 9. At thesame time, the cassette identifying member 9 is locked at the lower sideof the cassette insertion space by the lock lever (not shown). On theother hand, when a small-size tape cassette 1 is inserted, thesmall-size tape cassette 1 is guided onto the stage center at the centerposition in the right and left directions in the cassette stage 6 by thecassette insertion guide block 10, so that the small-size tape cassette1 can be prevented from being erroneously inserted at a displacedposition to the right or left side in the cassette stage 6 by thecassette insertion guide block 10.

After the cassette insertion, the cassette loading mechanism is actuatedto horizontally retract the cassette stage 6 from the cassette insertionposition P₁ to the cassette retract position P₂ in the direction of thearrow a, and then the cassette stage is vertically descended in thedirection of the arrow b from the cassette retract position P₂ to thecassette mount position P₃, whereby the tape cassette 1,2 ishorizontally loaded onto the plural cassette positioning pins whileupwardly floated at the height H₁ from the bottom plate 6 a of thecassette stage 6. At this time, the front lid 1A, 2A secured to thefront end of the tape cassette 1,2 is upwardly opened in the directionof the arrow b′.

After the cassette loading operation, the magnetic tape in the tapecassette 1,2 is pulled out from the cassette by the tape loadingmechanism, and loaded onto the rotating head drum (not shown) to performinformation recording/reproducing operation. In the cassette ejectoperation after the recording/reproducing operation, the cassette stage6 is vertically lifted up in the direction of the arrow b′ from thecassette mount position P₃ to the cassette retract position P₂ by thecounter operation to the cassette loading operation, and thenhorizontally moved in the direction of the arrow a′ to the cassetteinsertion position P₁ so that the tape cassette 1,2 is discharged to theoutside of the front panel 3 from the cassette insertion port 4 bycassette discharge means (not shown). At the same time, the lock of thelock lever is released by the cassette stage 6, and the cassetteidentifying member 9 and the cassette insertion guide 10 are escapedtogether into the cassette insertion space again.

However, in this prior art, the cassette identifying member 9, thecassette insertion guide 10 and the lock lever for locking these membersat the lower side of the cassette insertion space are provided suchplaces that an operator can easily see these members in the cassetteinsertion port 4. Therefore, the outward appearance of the cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus is remarkably bad. In addition, theoperator can easily touch the cassette identifying member 9, thecassette insertion guide 10 and the lock lever from the outside of thecassette insertion port 4. Therefore, if the operator carelessly touchesthe lock lever under the cassette loading state to release the lock, thecassette identifying member 9 and the cassette insertion guidecarelessly spring into the cassette insertion space. Therefore, at thesubsequent cassette eject time, the tape cassette 1,2 collides againstthe cassette identifying member 9 and the cassette insertion guide 10,resulting in such a critical accident that that these members aredamaged.

The present invention has been also implemented to overcome the aboveproblem, and has further object to provide a cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus in which a cassette insertion guide anda cassette identifying member re allowed to be safely accommodated atthe outside of a cassette insertion space under a cassette loadingstate.

There has been known another cassette type recording/reproducingapparatus such as a video tape recorder as shown in FIGS. 1G and 1H.This conventional cassette type recording/reproducing apparatus issuitably applicable to two types of tape cassettes 1 and 2 which aredifferent in size (D₁, D₂). According to this type of cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus, each of these types of tape cassettes 1and 2 is selectively inserted from the direction of the arrow a from thecassette insertion port of the front panel into the cassette stageserving as the cassette feeding means (not shown), and then the cassettestate is moved from the cassette insertion position to the cassettemount position to selectively load each of the two types of tapecassettes 1 and 2 to the cassette mount position.

At this time, when the tape cassette 1,2 is inserted from the cassetteinsertion port into the cassette stage from the direction of the arrowa, the tape cassette 1,2 is guided by a cassette guide (not shown), andpositioned at an insertion reference position P12 on the stage centerP₁₁ which is the center position of the cassette stage in the right andleft directions. When the tape cassette 1, 2 is selectively loaded tothe cassette mount position by the cassette stage, the tape cassette 1,2is inserted from the upper side through a pair of positioning referenceholes 14 common to the tape cassettes 1 and 2 into a pair of cassettepositioning pins 8 which are common to the tape cassettes 1 and 2 andlocated at the cassette mount position, whereby the tape cassettes 1 and2 are can be accurately positioned at the insertion reference positionP₁₂ on the state center P₁₁ at the cassette mount position.

Accordingly, when each tape cassette 1,2 is selectively inserted fromthe direction of the arrow a from the cassette insertion port into thecassette stage, it is necessary to carry out insertion positiondetection to detect whether these tape cassettes 1,2 are accuratelyinserted to the insertion reference position P₁₂ on the stage center P₁₁in the cassette stage. Further, it is necessary to carry out cassettetype detection to detect the type (size) of the tape cassette 1,2 whichis selectively inserted into the cassette stage and perform positioncontrol of a pair of right and left reel tables (not shown) at thecassette mount position. In the prior art, the insertion positiondetection and the cassette type detection of the tape cassette 1,2 areseparately performed. Therefore, the number of parts and the number offabricating steps are remarkably large, and thus the manufacturing costis remarkably high.

In this case, two members being detected (hereinafter referred to as“detection targets”) 15 and 16 which are located at different positionswith respect to the common positioning reference holes 14 to the tapecassettes 1 and 2 are formed at the front ends 1 a and 2 a of the tapecassettes 1 and 2, and two detection members 18 and 19 are provided to adetection lever 17 which is secured to the cassette stage so as to befreely rotatable in the directions of the arrows e,e′. Here, two lightreflection type optical sensors 22 and 23 are selectively switchedon/off by two light reflection plates 20 and 21 which are provided tothe detection lever 17 when these detection members 18 and 19selectively detect the two detection targets 15 and 16, whereby theinsertion position detection and the type detection of two types of tapecassettes 1 and 2 can be simultaneously performed.

In a case where only one detection lever 17 is used, when a large-sizetape cassette 2 is inserted, the detection member 18 for detecting asmall-size tape cassette 1 is spaced from the front end 2 a of thelarge-size tape cassette 2, and thus a gap 24 can be formed between thedetection member 18 and the front end 2 a of the large-size tapecassette 2. Accordingly, in the loading and eject operations of thelarge-size tape cassette 2 to and from the cassette mount position, thefront lid of the large-size tape cassette 2 can be smoothlyopened/closed without interfering with the detection member 18. However,if two detection arms are used to detect the detection members 18 and 19of the tape cassettes 1 and 2 separately from each other, when thelarge-size tape cassette 2 is inserted, the detection member of thedetection lever for detecting the small-size tape cassette still suffersinterference by the front end 2 a of the large-size tape cassette 2, sothat it obstructs the opening/closing operation of the front lid of thelarge-size tape cassette.

However, according to the system for selectively detecting the twodetection targets of the two types of tape cassettes 1 and 2 by twodetection members 18 and 19 provided to one detection lever 17, forexample, when the large-size tape cassette 2 is inserted, an opticalsensor 22 for detecting a small-size tape cassette is preferentiallyturned on in synchronism with the rotation of the detection lever 17 inthe direction of the arrow e, and then an optical sensor for detectingthe large-size tape cassette is turned on. Therefore, it is requiredthat the small-size tape cassette detecting optical sensor 22 which isonce turned on is switched from the On-state to the Off-state. However,the moving range of the detection lever 17 is limited, so that it isvery difficult to adjust the switching operation of the small-size tapecassette detecting sensor 22 in the order of OFF-ON-OFF, and thisadjustment work causes a remarkable increase in cost.

The present invention has been also implemented to solve the aboveproblem, and has further object to provide a cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus in which both the insertion positiondetection and the cassette type detection of plural types of tapecassettes which are different in size can be accurately performed with asimple structure.

There has been further known another cassette type recording/reproducingapparatus such as a video tape recorder or the like as show in FIGS. 1Iand 1J. In this prior art, two types of tape cassettes 1 and 2 which aredifferent in size (D₁ and D₂) are properly used. According to this typeof cassette type recording/reproducing apparatus, when these types oftape cassettes 1 and 2 are selectively inserted from the cassetteinsertion port of the front panel (not shown) into the cassette stage 6serving as the cassette feeding means in the direction of the arrow a,these tape cassettes 1 and 2 are positioned in two axial directions atthe insertion reference position P₁₂ on the stage center P₁₁ which isthe center position in the right and left directions of the cassettestage 6.

In this case, with respect to the large-size tape cassette 2, it ispositioned on the stage center P₁₁ by both right and left side plates 6b of the cassette stage 6, and it is positioned at the insertionreference position P₁₂ by a pair of right and left cassette stoppers 11which are formed at the front end of the bottom plate 6 a. On the otherhand, with respect to the small-size tape cassette 1, it is positionedon the stage center P₁₁ by a pair of right and left cassette guides 12 aof a pair of right and left stopper blocks 12 which are secured to thebottom plate 6 a of the cassette stage 6, and it is positioned at theinsertion reference position P₁₂ by a pair of right and left cassettestoppers 12 b. If the pair of. right and left stopper blocks 12 stillprojects onto the bottom plate 6 a of the cassette stage 6, thelarge-size tape cassette 2 cannot be inserted into the cassette stage 6.Accordingly, in the prior art, the pair of right and left stopper blocks12 are secured to the lower surface side of the bottom plate 6 a of thecassette stage 6 by a pair of right and left leaf springs 13, and whenthe large-size tape cassette 2 is inserted into the cassette stage 6,the pair of right and left stopper blocks 12 are escaped to the lowerside of the bottom plate 6 a against the pair of right and left leafsprings 13.

The tape cassette 1,2 which is selectively inserted into the cassettestage 6 as described above is cramped on the bottom plate 6 a of thecassette stage 6 by the cassette press member. After the cassetteinsertion, the cassette stage 6 is horizontally retracted from thecassette insertion position to the cassette retract position in thedirection of the arrow a by the cassette loading mechanism (not shown),and then it is vertically descended to the cassette mount position,whereby the tape cassette 1,2 is loaded so as to be horizontally mountedon the plural cassette positioning pins (not shown) provided at thecassette mount position by the cassette pressing force of the cassettepress member.

After the cassette loading operation, the magnetic tape of the tapecassette 1,2 is pulled out from the cassette by the tape loadingmechanism, and loaded onto the rotating head drum (not shown) to performinformation recording/reproducing operation. After therecording/reproducing operation, by the counter operation to thecassette loading operation, the cassette stage 6 is returned from thecassette mount position via the cassette retract position to thecassette insertion position, and finally the tape cassette 1,2 isdischarged to the outside of the cassette insertion port.

However, in the prior art, the pair of right and left stopper blocks 12for positioning the small-size tape cassette 1 at the insertionreference position P12 on the stage center P₁₁ are secured to the bottomplate 6 a of the cassette stage 6 by the pair of right and left leafsprings 13. Therefore, if the rigidity of the leaf springs 13 is low,the leaf springs 13 would be irregularly deformed due to distortion orthe like if the small-size tape cassette 1 is carelessly stronglyinserted into the cassette stage 6, and the pair of right and leftcassette guides 12 a or the cassette stoppers 12 b are deviated from thenormal position, so that the small-size tape cassette 1 cannot beaccurately positioned to the insertion reference position P₁₂ on thestage center P₁₁. If the position of the tape cassette 1,2 in thecassette stage 6 is inaccurate, there would occur such a cassetteloading miss that the tape cassette 1,2 cannot be accurately mounted onthe plural cassette position positioning pins when the tape cassette 1,2is loaded to the cassette mount position.

On the other hand, if the thickness or width of the pair of right andleft leaf springs 13 is set to a large value to increase the rigiditythereof to an excessive value, a cassette push-up force of the stopperblocks 12 which corresponds to the reaction force of the leaf springs 13is excessively large, and thus a strong force is needed to insert thelarge-size tape cassette 2 into the cassette stage 6, so that it isremarkably difficult to insert the large-size tape cassette 2.Accordingly, the insertion degree of the large-size tape cassette 2 isinsufficient, and the large-size tape cassette 2 is loaded while it isnot accurately inserted to the insertion reference position p₁₂resulting in the cassette loading miss inwhich the large-size tapecassette 2 cannot accurately mounted on the plural cassette positioningpins of the cassette mount position.

The present invention has been also implemented to overcome the aboveproblem, and has further object to provide a cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus in which any tape cassette can be easilyinserted when plural types of tape cassettes which are different in sizeare selectively inserted into the cassette stage, and any tape cassettecan be accurately positioned in the cassette stage.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A first object of the present invention is to provide a cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus which can beforehand prevent a camdriven lever from violently colliding against a cassette discharge leverin the course of a loading operation of a tape cassette.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus in which the cassette insertion port ofthe front panel is opened/closed from the inside by an opening/closinglid which is freely rotatably secured to a cassette stage and movedtogether with a cassette stage, and which can prevent a cassette doubleinsertion, etc. in a cassette loading operation in advance.

A third object of present invention is to provide a cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus which can prevent a tape cassette frombeing obliquely inserted into a cassette stage in advance.

A fourth object of the present invention is to provide a cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus in which a cassette insertion guide anda cassette identifying member re allowed to be safely accommodated atthe outside of a cassette insertion space under a cassette loadingstate.

A fifth object of the present invention is to provide a cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus in which both the insertion positiondetection and the cassette type detection of plural types of tapecassettes which are different in size can be accurately performed with asimple structure.

A sixth object of the present invention is to provide a cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus in which any tape cassette can be easilyinserted when plural types of tape cassettes which are different in sizeare selectively inserted into the cassette stage, and any tape cassettecan be accurately positioned in the cassette stage.

In order to attain the first object, according to a first aspect of thepresent invention, a cassette type recording/reproducing apparatusaccording to the present invention includes a cassette insertion portformed on a front panel, a cassette stage which is reciprocatively movedbetween a cassette insertion position at which a tape cassette isinserted from the cassette insertion port, and a cassette mount positionat which the inserted tape cassette is subjected torecording/reproducing operation, a cassette discharge lever which isfreely rotationally secured to the cassette stage, and pushed and movedby the cassette which is inserted through the cassette insertion portinto the cassette stage, a cam driven lever which is freely rotationallysecured to the cassette stage, and serves to rotationally drive saidcassette discharge lever in a cassette discharging direction, a camwhich is disposed at a fixed position on a movement locus of the camdriven which is moved together with the cassette stage, and kicks thecam driven lever during the cassette stage being moved from the cassettemount position to the cassette insertion position, whereby the cassettedischarge lever is rotationally driven in the cassette dischargedirection by the cam driven lever, and control means for positionallyregulating the cam driven lever in a fixed range with some degree offreedom at the middle position in a swing range in which the cam drivenlever is rotated by the cam.

In order to attain the second object of the present invention, accordingto a second aspect of the present invention, a cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus includes a cassette insertion portformed on a front panel, a cassette stage which is reciprocatively movedbetween a cassette insertion position at which a tape cassette isinserted from the cassette insertion port, and a cassette mount positionat which the inserted tape cassette is subjected torecording/reproducing operation, an opening/closing lid which is freelyrotatably secured to the cassette stage so as to be movable togetherwith the cassette stage, closes the cassette insertion port from theinside thereof through the movement of the cassette stage to a cassetteinsertion position, and is pushed and opened by a tape cassette which isinserted from the cassette insertion port into the cassette stage, and adouble insertion preventing lid which is evacuated to a lid closingposition where the cassette insertion port is opened when the cassettestage is moved to the cassette insertion position, and moved to a lidclosing position where the cassette insertion port is closed from theinside thereof when the cassette stage is moved to the cassette mountposition.

In order to attain the third object of the present invention, accordingto a third aspect of the present invention, a cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus includes a cassette insertion portformed on a front panel, a cassette stage which is reciprocatively movedbetween a cassette insertion position at which a tape cassette isinserted from the cassette insertion port, and a cassette mount positionat which the inserted tape cassette is subjected torecording/reproducing operation, a cassette press member which issecured to the cassette stage and adapted to press a tape cassette fromthe upper side thereof at a position which is nearer to a cassettedischarge direction side than the front lid of the tape cassette, thetape cassette being inserted from the cassette insertion port into thecassette stage, a cassette slant insertion preventing stopper which issecured to the cassette stage and adapted to relatively press a frontlid portion of a tape cassette from the upper side thereof, the tapecassette being inserted from the cassette insertion port into thecassette stage, whereby the tape cassette is prevented from beingobliquely inserted in a forward and upward direction into the cassettestage, and a cassette slant insertion preventing mechanism for allowingthe cassette slant insertion preventing stopper to the upper side of thecassette stage when the cassette stage is moved from the cassetteinsertion port to the cassette mount position.

In order to attain the fourth object of the present invention, accordingto a fourth aspect of the present invention, a cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus includes plural types of tape cassetteswhich are different in size from one another, a cassette insertion portformed in a front panel, a cassette stage which is reciprocatively movedbetween a cassette insertion position at which the plural types of tapecassettes are selectively inserted from the cassette insertion port, anda cassette mount position at which the inserted plural tape cassettesare subjected to recording/reproducing operation, a cassette insertionguide which is disposed inside the cassette insertion port, and adaptedto regulate the insertion position of a small-size tape cassette intothe cassette stage, a cassette identifying member which is disposedinside the cassette insertion port, and is driven by a large-size tapecassette to allow the cassette insertion guide to escape out of acassette insertion space, and control means for moving the cassetteinsertion guide and the cassette identifying member to an operationposition in the cassette insertion space when the cassette stage ismoved to the cassette insertion position, and accommodating the cassetteinsertion guide and the cassette identifying member at an accommodationposition out of the cassette insertion space when the cassette stage ismoved from the cassette insertion position to a cassette mount positionside.

In order to attain the fifth object of the present invention, accordingto a fifth aspect of the present invention, a cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus includes plural types of tape cassetteswhich are different in size from one another, a cassette insertion portformed in a front panel, a cassette stage which is reciprocatively movedbetween a cassette insertion position at which the plural types of tapecassettes are selectively inserted from the cassette insertion port, anda cassette mount position at which the inserted plural tape cassettesare subjected to recording/reproducing operation, detection means forsimultaneously detecting the insertion position and the type of theplural types of tape cassettes which are selectively inserted from thecassette insertion port into the cassette stage, first and seconddetection targets which are formed at different positions with respectto positioning reference holes which are common to the plural types oftape cassettes, the first and second detection targets constituting thedetection means, a double lever mechanism having first and seconddetection levers which are freely rotatably secured to the cassettestage, and are rotationally driven by the first and second detectiontargets, the double lever mechanism constituting the detection means,and first and second optical sensors which are secured to the cassettestage, and adapted to detect the positions of the first and seconddetection levers, the first and second optical sensors constituting thedetection means, the first detection lever comprising a single operatinglever, and the second detection lever comprising a projection forpushing the first detection lever and an optical shutter for inhibitinga detection operation of the first optical sensor.

In order to attain the sixth object of the present invention, accordingto a sixth aspect of the present invention, a cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus includes plural types of tape cassetteswhich are different in size from one another, a cassette insertion portformed in a front panel, a cassette stage which is reciprocatively movedbetween a cassette insertion position at which the plural types of tapecassettes are selectively inserted from the cassette insertion port, anda cassette mount position at which the inserted plural tape cassettesare subjected to recording/reproducing operation, a pair of right andleft stopper blocks each having a cassette guide and a cassette stopperfor positioning to an insertion reference position on a stage center asmall-size tape cassette of the plural types of tape cassettes which areselectively inserted from the cassette insertion port into the cassettestage, a pair of right and left supporting pins through which the pairof right and left stopper blocks are freely rotatably secured to thecassette stage so that the stopper blocks can freely get into and out ofthe cassette stage, and a pair of right and left rotational urging meansfor moving the pair of right and left stopper blocks into the cassettestage when a small-size tape cassette is inserted from the cassetteinsertion port into the cassette stage, and letting the pair of rightand left stopper blocks escape out of the cassette stage when alarge-size tape cassette is inserted from the cassette insertion portinto the cassette stage.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A to 1J show cassette discharging mechanisms of conventionalcassette type recording/reproducing apparatus;

FIGS. 2A to 2J are diagrams showing the subject matter of the presentinvention when the present invention is applied to a cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus such as a video cassette recorder or thelike;

FIG. 3 shows a small-size tape cassette in bottom, front and side views;

FIG. 4 shows a large-size tape cassette in bottom, front and side views;

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a cassette loading mechanism;

FIG. 6 is a side view of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a front view of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a partially notched plan view of FIG. 4 to show a cassettedouble insertion preventing mechanism;

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional side view showing an accommodation state ofthe cassette double insertion preventing lid;

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional side view showing an aspect when a tapecassette is inserted into a cassette stage in FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional side view when a cassette insertion port isclosed by the cassette double insertion preventing lid;

FIG. 12 is a partially notched side view showing an opening time pointof an opening/closing mechanism for opening/closing the cassette doubleinsertion preventing lid;

FIG. 13 is a partially notched side view showing a time point justbefore a lid closing operation of the opening/closing mechanism;

FIG. 14 is a partially notched side view showing a lid closing timepoint of the opening/closing mechanism;

FIG. 15 is a partially notched plan view showing a cassette erroneousinsertion preventing mechanism;

FIG. 16 is a front view of FIG. 14;

FIG. 17 is a partially notched side view showing an aspect that acassette identifying member is moved to an operation position in acassette insertion space by a control lever by returning a cassettestage to a cassette insertion position;

FIG. 18 is a partially notched side view showing an aspect that acassette insertion guide is moved to an operation position in thecassette insertion space by the cassette identifying member;

FIG. 19 is a partially notched side view showing an aspect that thecassette identifying member identifies a large-size tape cassette andthe cassette insertion guide is escaped out of the cassette insertionspace;

FIG. 20 is a partially notched side view showing an aspect that thecassette stage is moved from the cassette insertion position to thecassette mount position side and the cassette identifying member ismoved to an accommodation position out of the cassette insertion spaceby the control lever;

FIG. 21 is a partially notched side view showing an aspect that thecassette insertion guide is moved to the accommodation position out ofthe cassette insertion space by the cassette identifying member;

FIG. 22 is a partially notched perspective view showing the cassetteerroneous insertion preventing mechanism;

FIG. 23 is a bottom view showing an aspect that a small-size tapecassette inserted in the cassette stage is positioned to an insertionreference position on a stage center by a stopper block;

FIG. 24 is a bottom view showing an aspect that a large-size tapecassette inserted into the cassette stage is positioned to the insertionreference position on the stage center;

FIG. 25 is a front view showing an aspect that the stopper block invadesfrom the lower side into the cassette stage at the maximum level;

FIG. 26 is a front view showing an aspect that the small-size tapecassette inserted into the cassette stage is positioned on the stagecenter by the stopper block;

FIG. 27 is a front view showing an aspect that the stopper block isescaped to the lower side of the cassette stage by the large-size tapecassette inserted into the cassette stage;

FIG. 28 is a perspective view showing the stopper block;

FIG. 29 is a partially notched side view showing a cassette pressmechanism of the cassette stage and a cassette slant insertionpreventing mechanism;

FIG. 30 is a plan view of the cassette stage of FIG. 29;

FIG. 31 is a partially notched side view showing an aspect that the tapecassette is prevented from being obliquely inserted into the cassettestage by the cassette slant insertion preventing mechanism;

FIG. 32 is a partially side view showing an aspect that a cassette slantinsertion preventing stopper is escaped to the front and upward side ofthe cassette stage when the tape cassette is loaded to the cassettemount position;

FIG. 33 is a bottom view showing a cassette insertion and type detectionmechanism secured to the cassette stage;

FIG. 34 is a bottom view showing the insertion position detection andthe type detection of the small-size tape cassette inserted into thecassette stage;

FIG. 35 is a bottom view showing the insertion position detection andthe type detection of the large-size tape cassette inserted into thecassette stage;

FIG. 36 is a bottom view showing a double lever mechanism in thecassette insertion and type detection mechanism;

FIG. 37 is a bottom view showing the insertion position detection andthe type detection of the small-size tape cassette which is performed bythe double lever mechanism;

FIG. 38 is a bottom view showing the insertion position and the typedetection of the large-size tape cassette which is performed by thedouble lever mechanism;

FIG. 39 is a plan view of FIG. 35;

FIG. 40 is a plan view of FIG. 37;

FIG. 41 is a plan view of FIG. 38;

FIG. 42 is a plan view of FIG. 33;

FIG. 43 is a side view showing a cassette discharge mechanism;

FIG. 44 is a side view showing an aspect that a cam driven lever isdriven by a cam of the cassette discharge mechanism during the cassetteloading operation;

FIG. 45 is a side view showing an aspect that the cam driven lever isdriven by the cam of the cassette discharge mechanism during thecassette eject operation;

FIG. 46 is a diagram showing a swing range where the cam driven lever isdriven by the cam, and a swing range with some degree of freedom; and

FIGS. 47A and 47B are perspective views showing the cam driven lever.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Preferred embodiments in which the present invention is applied to acassette type recording/reproducing apparatus such as a video cassetterecorder or the like will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 47B.The same structural portions as FIGS. 1A to 1J are represented by thesame reference numerals, and the duplicative description thereof isomitted.

[Description of the Subject Matter of the Present Invention]

First, the subject matter of the present invention will be describedwith reference to FIG. 2.

In a cassette type recording/reproducing apparatus of the presentinvention, a tape cassette 1 is inserted in a direction of an arrow ainto a cassette stage 6 through a cassette insertion port of a frontpanel as described later, and the tape cassette 1 is reciprocativelymoved between a cassette insertion position and a cassette mountposition as described later. A cassette discharge lever 51 which ispushed by the tape cassette 1 which is inserted through the cassetteinsertion port into the cassette stage 6 in the direction of the arrowa, is secured to a bottom plate 6 a of the cassette stage 6 through asupport pin 142 so as to be freely rotatable in the directions of arrowse,e′ within a horizontal plane. A cam driven lever 28 which serves torotationally drive the cassette discharge lever 51 in the direction ofthe arrow e′ which corresponds to a cassette discharge direction issecured to a side plate 6 b of the cassette stage 6 through a supportpin 29 so as to be freely rotatable in the directions of arrows g,g′within a vertical plane. A cam 31 which is disposed at a fixed positionwhich is overlapped with a movement locus of the cam driven lever 28which is moved together with the cassette stage 6, is secured to achassis side plate 32. There is further provided control means 50 forpositionally regulating the cam driven lever 28 within a fixed range θ₁₂at the middle position of a swing range θ₁₁ in which the cam drivenlever 28 is rotated by the cam 31.

Accordingly, in the cassette type recording/reproducing apparatus of thepresent invention, as shown in FIG. 2A, when the tape cassette 1 isinserted in the direction of the arrow a into the cassette stage 6through the cassette insertion port in a cassette loading operation, oneend 51a of the cassette discharge lever 51 is pushed by the direction ofthe arrow e by the tape cassette 1, and the cassette discharge lever 51is rotated in the direction of the arrow e. The tape cassette 1 isloaded from the cassette insertion position to the cassette mountposition in the direction of the arrow a by the cassette stage 6, and inthe course of the cassette loading operation, the lower end 28 a of thecam driven lever 28 is once rotated in the direction of an arrow g bythe cam 31 as shown in FIG. 2C. At the instantaneous time when the camdriven lever 28 gets over the cam 31 in the direction of the arrow a,the cam driven lever 28 is rotated and returned in the direction of thearrow g′ by the control means 50. At this time, the lower end 28 a ofthe cam driven lever 28 is stopped at such as a position as to keep agap interval 27 from the other end 51 b of the cassette discharge lever51, whereby the lower end 28 a of the cam driven lever 28 is preventedfrom coming into forcible contact with the other end 51 b of thecassette discharge lever 51 from the direction of the arrow g′.

Accordingly, it can be prevented in advance that in the course of thecassette loading operation, the cam driven lever 28 is violentlycollided from the direction of the arrow g′ by the other end 51 b of thecassette discharge lever 51, so that an uncomfortable collision sound“click sound” occurs. Further, there can be prevented in advance such acassette loading miss that the tape cassette 1 in the cassette stage 6is pushed in the direction of the arrow e′ by the one end 51 a of thecassette discharge lever 51 due to the impingement at the collision timeand displaced in the direction of the arrow a′, so that the tapecassette 1 are not accurately engaged with plural cassette positioningpins (not shown) at the cassette mount position. In order to prevent thepositional displacement of the tape cassette 1 in the cassette stage 6as described above, it is unnecessary to take a special countermeasureto increase the clamp force to the tape cassette 1 in the cassette stage6, and the clamp force can be sufficiently weakened.

In the eject operation of the tape cassette 1 from the cassette mountposition to the cassette insertion position in the direction of thearrow a′ by the cassette stage 6, the cam driven lever 28 is relativelykicked from the direction of the arrow a by the cam 31 as shown in FIG.2B, whereby the cam driven lever 28 is rotationally driven in thedirection of the arrow g′. As shown in FIG. 2A, the other end 51 b ofthe cassette discharge lever 51 is pushed in the direction of the arrowf′ by the cam driven lever 28, and the tape cassette 1 in the cassettestage 6 is pushed in the direction of the arrow a′ by the one end 51 aof the cassette discharge lever 51 to violently push the tape cassette 1to the outside of the cassette insertion port in the direction of thearrow a′, thereby facilitating a pull-out operation of the tape cassetteat the outside of the front panel. At this time, the clamp force to thetape cassette 1 in the cassette stage 6 can be sufficiently weakened.Accordingly, the tape cassette 1 can be easily inserted into thecassette stage 6 with a weak force in a cassette insertion operation,also the tape cassette 1 can be easily discharged with a weak force whenthe tape cassette 1 is discharged in the direction of the arrow a′ bythe cassette discharge lever 51 in the eject operation, and the rigidityof the cassette discharge lever 51 and the cam driven lever 28 can besufficiently reduced.

[Embodiments of the Present Invention]

Next, the preferred embodiments according to the present invention willbe described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 47B.

[Description of Two Types of Tape Cassettes]

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a magnetic tape 62 which are wound around apair of right and left tape reels 61 having different diameters isaccommodated in each of small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1, 2which are different in size (the depth in the forward and rearwarddirection and the width in the right and left direction) D₁ and D₂ andin thickness T₁, T₂. Each of these magnetic tapes 62 is passed along theinner side of the front lid 1A,2A having an inner-and-outer dualstructure which is secured to the front end 1 a, 2 a of the small-sizeand large-size tape cassettes 1, 2. Further, a cut-out 64 havingsubstantially the same shape is formed at the center portion of thefront end 1 a, 2 a side of the bottom plate 1 c, 2 c in which a pair ofright and left reel table insertion holes 63 of the small-size andlarge-size tape cassettes 1, 2 are formed.

A pair of right and left positioning reference holes 14 are formed atboth the right and left side positions of the cut-out 64 of the bottomplate 1 c, 2 of the small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1, 2, andit is commonly used for the small-size and large-size tape cassettes1,2. That is, the pair of right and left positioning reference holes 14are allocated at the right and left sides at the same distance L₁ fromthe cassette center P₅ and they are formed at the rearward position fromthe front end 1 a, 2 a at the same dimension L₂. A pair of right andleft slits 65 along both side surfaces 1 b, 2 b of the small-size andlarge-size tape cassettes 1,2 which extend from the front lid 1A,2A tothe bottom plate 1 c, 2 c are formed in parallel to the cassette centerP₅ at both the right and left end sides of the small-size and large-sizetape cassettes 1, 2. A lock lever 66 of the front lid 1A, 2A is disposedat the rear side from the slits 65. In the small-size tape cassette 1,the lock lever 66 is disposed in only one slit 65. Further, a pair ofright and left detection-target portions 15, 16 which are used tosimultaneously perform the detection of an insertion position in thecassette stage 6 and the detection of a type (size) as described aboveare formed on the front end surface of the bottom plate lc,2c which isthe front end la, 2a of the small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1,2. Of the pair of the right and left detection-target portions 15, 16,the detection-target portions 15, 16 at the right side of FIGS. 3 and 4are formed at the common position to the reference hole 14, and thedetection-target portions 15, 16 at the left side are formed atdifferent positions with respect to the reference hole 14. [Descriptionof Cassette stage] As shown in FIGS. 23 to 27, the cassette stage 6 isformed of a metal plate or the like, and it is constructed to have anupwardly opened and substantially U-shaped section by a horizontalbottom plate 6a, and a pair of right and left side plates 6 b erectingvertically and upwardly from both the right and left ends of the bottomplate 6 a. A pair of right and left cassette stoppers 11 for thelarge-size tape cassette 2 are integrally formed at both the right andleft sides of the rear end of the bottom plate 6 a (the end portion inthe arrow a direction). Further, on the bottom plate 6 a are fixed apair of stopper blocks 12 for guiding the small-size tape cassette 1onto the stage center P₁₁ and position it to the insertion referenceposition P₁₂.

[Description of Cassette Loading Mechanism]

Next, as shown in FIGS. 5 to 8, a cassette loading mechanism 71 isdisposed inside of the cassette insertion port 4 of the front panel 3,and the chassis of the cassette loading mechanism 71 comprises ahorizontal chassis top plate 33 which is integrally formed with andbridged over the upper portions of a pair of right and left verticalchassis side plates formed of metal plates or the like, and it isdesigned to be downwardly opened and substantially U-shaped in section.A front base 34 serving as a fixing member which is formed of syntheticresin and designed to be upwardly opened and substantially U-shaped ishorizontally suspended between the front ends (the end portions in thedirection of the arrow a′) of the pair of right and left chassis sideplates 32 along the lower end and both the side edges of the cassetteinsertion port 4. Further, the cassette stage 6 is disposed horizontallyat the rear position of the cassette insertion port 4 between the pairof right and left chassis side plates 32. Respective pairs of right andleft L-type guide grooves 72 each comprising a horizontal passage 72 aand a vertical passage 72 b which is hung down from the rear end of thehorizontal passage 72 a, totally four L-type guide grooves 72 are formedin the pair of right and left chassis side plates 32. Rack guide plates73 are secured in parallel on both the side surfaces of the end portionsof the rear end sides (the end portions in the direction of the arrow a)of the pair of right and left chassis side plates 32, and horizontalguide grooves 74 are formed along the upper end edge sides on the innerside surfaces of the rack guide plates 73. Further, a pair of right andleft rack plates 75 are disposed in parallel at the inside positions ofthe pair of right and left rack guide plates 74 on both side surfaces ofthe pair of right and left chassis side plates 32. Respective pairs offront and rear guide rollers 76 at each of the front and rear sides,which are fixed at the inside and outside of the positions near to boththe front and rear ends (both ends in the directions of the arrow a,a′)of the rack plates 75, are movably inserted in one horizontal passage 72a of the L-type guide grooves 72 and the horizontal guide groove 74, andthus these rack plates 75 are horizontally slidable along the pair ofright and left chassis side plates 32 in the directions of the arrowsa,a′ which are the forward and rearward directions.

A pair of slant guide grooves 77 which are provided at each of front andrear sides and designed to be slant at a predetermined angle to thehorizontal reference are formed at the front end sides (in the directionof the arrow a′) of the pair of right and left rack plates 75, and theseslant guide grooves 77 are disposed to cross each pair of L-type guidegrooves 72. Further respective pairs of guide rollers 78 at the rightand left sides, totally four guide rollers 78 are movably inserted ineach L-type guide groove 72 and each slant guide groove 77 at thecrossing point of these grooves. Further, a loading motor 80 is fixedthrough a motor holder 79 to the inside of the rear end side of onechassis side plate 32, and a driving shaft 82 which is forwardly andbackwardly rotated through a gear train 81 by the loading motor 80 ishorizontally suspended between the upper portions of the pair of rightand left chassis side plates 32. A pair of right and left pinions 83which are fixed to both the right and left ends of the driving shaft 82are engaged with a pair of right and left racks 75 a which arehorizontally formed along the upper end edges of the pair of right andleft rack plates 75.

When the cassette loading mechanism 71 rotates the pair of right andleft pinions 83 forwardly and backwardly through the gear train 81 andthe driving shaft 82 with the loading motor 80 to drive the racks 75 aof the pair of right and left rack plates 75 in the directions of thearrows a,a′ by the pinions 83 in synchronism with each other, the pairof right and left rack plates 75 are guided along the one horizontalpassage 72 a of the L-type guide grooves 72 and the horizontal guidegroove 74 and horizontally and synchronously moved in the directions ofthe arrows a′,a along the pair of right and left chassis side plates 32.At this time, each pair of right and left guide rollers 78 of thecassette stage 6 are synchronously moved in an L-shaped locus in thedirections of the arrows a,b and the arrows a′, b′, along the horizontalpassages 72 a and the vertical passages 72 b of the respective pairs ofL-type guide grooves 72 of the pair of right and left chassis sideplates 32 of each right and left guide rollers 78 of the cassette stage6 by each pair of right and left rack plates 75. As a result, thecassette stage 6 is reciprocatively moved along the L-shaped locus inthe directions of the arrows a,b and the directions of the arrows a′, b′among a cassette insertion position P₁ indicated by a dotted line, acassette retract position P₂ as indicated by a one-dotted chain line towhich the cassette is horizontally retracted, and a cassette mountposition P₃ as indicated by a two-dotted chain line to which thecassette is vertically and downwardly moved.

[Description of Cassette Press Mechanism]

As shown in FIGS. 9, 10, 29 and 30, acassette press mechanism 91 ismounted at the upper side of the cassette stage 6. The cassette pressmechanism 91 has a opening/closing lid 5 for opening/closing thecassette insertion port 4 of the front panel 3 from the inside, and acassette press lever 92 which is upwardly and downwardly rotated whilesupporting the opening/closing lid 5. The cassette press lever 92 isdesigned to be downwardly opened and substantially U-shaped in sectionby a pair of right and left side plates 92 a and a top plate portion 92b through which the upper end portions of the side plates 92 a arehorizontally linked, and the top plate portion 92 b is formed on a mountstand of a cassette slant insertion preventing stopper as describedlater. The cassette press lever 92 is secured to the rear ends of thepair of right and left side plates 6 b of the cassette stage 6 through apair of right and left horizontal support pins 93 by the rear ends ofthe pair of right and left side plates 92 a so as to be freely rotatablein the directions of the arrows d,d′ which are the upward and downwarddirections. The cassette press lever 92 is rotationally urged in thedirection of the arrow d′ corresponding to a cassette press direction bya pair of right and left press springs 94 serving as rotational urgingmeans comprising an extension spring to come into contact with and stopat the pair of right and left stoppers 95 which are integrally formed onthe right and left side plates 6 b of the cassette stage 6.

The opening/closing lid 5 is formed of synthetic resin or the like, andboth the right and left sides of the upper end of the opening/closinglid 5 are secured to the insides of the front ends of the pair of rightand left side plates 92 a of the cassette press lever 92 through a pairof right and left horizontal support pins 7 so as to be freely rotatablein the directions of arrows c,c′ which correspond to the forward andrearward direction and the upward and downward direction. Theopening/closing lid 5 is rotationally urged in the direction of thearrow c′ by a pair of right and left opening/closing lid springs 96serving as rotational urging means for closing the lid which comprisetorsion coil springs, whereby the opening/closing lid 5 abuts againststoppers integrally formed at the insides of the front end of the pairof right and left arm portions 92 a, and stops at the lid closingposition of the cassette insertion port 4 shown in FIG. 9.

As shown in FIG. 9, in the cassette press mechanism 91, when thecassette stage 6 is returned to the cassette insertion position P₁, fromthe direction of the arrow a′, the opening/closing lid 5 is rotated inthe direction of the arrow c′ to the lid closing position at which thelid 5 is positioned substantially vertically.

As shown in FIG. 10, when the small-size and large-size tape cassettes1,2 are selectively inserted from the direction of the arrow a into thecassette stage 6 from the cassette insertion port 4 of the front panel3, the opening/closing lid 5 is pushed and opened in the direction ofthe arrow c against the pair of right and left opening/closing lidsprings 96 by the small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1, 2, wherebythe opening/closing lid 5 gets on the upper portion of the small-sizeand largesize tape cassettes 1,2. At this time, in the course of the lidopening operation of the opening/closing lid 5 in the direction of thearrow c, plural projections 5 a which are integrally on the back surfaceof the opening/closing lid 5 abut against the top plate portion 92 b ofthe cassette press lever 92 from the lower side, and the cassette presslever 92 is pushed upwardly in the direction of an arrow d against thepair of right and left press springs 94 together with theopening/closing lid 5. Further, the small-size and large-size tapecassettes 1, 2 are pressed and fixed onto the bottom plate 6 a of thecassette stage 6 through the opening/closing lid 5 by the cassette pressforce which is a reaction force of the cassette press lever 92 in thedirection of the arrow d′.

[Description of Cassette Double Insertion Preventing Mechanism]

As shown in FIGS. 8 to 13, a cassette double insertion preventing lid 45of a cassette double insertion preventing mechanism 101 is fixed to therear end (the end portion in the direction of the arrow a) of the frontbase 34 through a pair of right and left horizontal support pins 46 soas to be freely rotatable in the directions of arrows j,j′ whichcorrespond to the upward and downward directions. A pair of right andleft opening/closing mechanisms 47 for opening/closing the cassettedouble insertion preventing lid 45 in the directions of the arrows j,j′are secured to both side surfaces of the pair of right and left chassisside plates 32. Each of these opening/closing mechanisms 47 comprises aseesaw type driving lever 103 which is mounted to the chassis side plate32 through a horizontal support pin 102 so as to be rotationally drivenin the directions of arrows m,m′ corresponding to the upward anddownward directions, a cam driven roller 104 which is fixed to the rearend of the driving lever 103, a cam groove 105 which is formed along thelower edge of the rack plate 75, a driving lever spring 106 serving asrotational urging means which comprises a tension spring forrotationally urging the driving lever 103 in the direction of the arrowm, a substantially L-shaped cam hole 107 formed at the front end of thedriving lever 103, and a cam driven roller 108 which is fixed to boththe right and left side surfaces of the cassette double insertion lid 45so as to be freely movable in the cam hole 107. A pair of right and leftcam driven rollers 108 are freely movably inserted into a pair of rightand left cam grooves 107 so as to penetrate through a pair of right andleft openings 109 formed which are formed in a pair of right and leftchassis side plates 32.

With respect to the cassette double insertion preventing mechanism 101,when the cassette stage 6 is returned to the cassette insertion positionP₁ in the direction of the arrow a′ as shown in FIG. 9, as shown in FIG.12, the cam driven roller 104 gets out relatively in the direction ofthe arrow a from the cam groove 105 of the rack plate 75 which isreturned in the direction of the arrow a′, so that the drive lever 103is rotationally driven in the direction of the arrow m by the drivinglever spring 106, and the cam driven roller 108 is driven in thedirection of the arrow m by the cam hole 107, whereby the cassettedouble insertion preventing lid 45 is tilted in a horizontal position inthe direction of an arrow j′ and retracted to the lower side of thecassette stage 6.

Next, as show in FIG. 10, when the rack plate 75 of the cassette loadingmechanism 71 is slid in the direction of the arrow a in order to movethe cassette stage 6 in the directions of the arrows a,b from thecassette insertion position P₁ shown in FIG. 6 through the cassetteretract position P₂ to the cassette mount position P₃ after one of thesmall-size and the large-size tape cassettes 1, 2 is selectivelyinserted into the cassette stage 6 from the cassette insertion port 4,as shown in FIGS. 13 and 14, the cam driven roller 104 is passedrelatively in the direction of the arrow a′, through the cam groove 105,and the driving lever 103 is rotationally driven against the drivinglever spring 106 in the direction of the arrow m′ by the cam groove 105.At this time, the cam driven roller 108 is driven in the direction ofthe arrow m′ by the cam hole 107, and as indicated by a solid line, thecassette double insertion preventing lid 45 is vertically erected in thedirection of the arrow j, whereby the cassette double insertionpreventing lid 45 closes the cassette insertion port 4 from the inside.

When the cassette double insertion preventing lid 45 is rotationallydriven in the direction of the arrow to the lid closing position asindicated by a solid line of FIG. 11, the cam driven roller 108 reachesone end 107 a of the cam hole 107 and is locked at it is, so that thecassette double insertion preventing lid 45 is locked at the lid closingposition at it is. That is, one end 107 a of the cam hole 107 is formedof RF which is R-surface with the support pin 102 at the center thereof,and even when an external force is applied from the cassette insertionport 4 to the cassette double insertion preventing lid 45 in thedirection of the arrow a, the external force is received by the supportpin 102, so that there occurs no force for rotating the cassette doubleinsertion preventing lid 45 in the direction of the arrow j′. Therefore,the cassette double insertion preventing lid 45 can be fixedly locked atthe lid closing position.

Further, as shown in FIG. 11, the cassette double insertion preventinglid 45 is offset-OFF to the arrow j′, direction side which is the lidclosing direction to the center of the support pin 46. Accordingly,whenasindicatedbyaone-dottedchainline of FIG. 11, a finger or the likeis carelessly pinched between the tip of the cassette insertionpreventing lid 45 and the chassis top plate 33 in the course of the lidclosing operation of the cassette double insertion preventing lid 45 inthe direction of the arrow j, and the pinched finger or the like ispulled out in the direction of the arrow a′, an escaping force in thedirection of the arrow j′ which is the lid closing direction acts on thecassette double insertion preventing lid 45, and thus the finger or thelike can be safely pulled out in the direction of the arrow a′.

As described above, according to the cassette double insertionpreventing mechanism 101, when the small-size and large-size cassettes1,2 are selectively loaded from the cassette insertion position P1 tothe cassette mount position P₃ by the cassette stage 6, the cassetteinsertion port 4 can be closed from the inside by the cassette doubleinsertion preventing lid 45. In addition, the cassette double insertionpreventing lid 45 can be fixedly locked. Therefore, so-called doublecassette insertion error in which a next tape cassette or foreign matteris erroneously inserted from the cassette insertion port, can beprevented in advance. When the small-size and the large-size tapecassettes 1,2 are ejected from the cassette mount position P₃ to thecassette insertion position P₁, the cassette double insertion preventinglid 45 is rotated in the direction of the arrow j′ through a counteroperation at the loading time, whereby the it can be retracted to thelower side of the cassette stage 6 shown in FIG. 9.

[Description of Cassette Erroneous Insertion Preventing Mechanism]

As shown in FIGS. 15 to 22, the cassette erroneous insertion preventingmechanism 111 has a pair of rotational right and left cassetteidentification members 9 formed of synthetic resin or the like, acassette insertion guide 10 and control levers 112. The cassetteidentification members 9, the cassette insertion guide 10 and thecontrol levers 112 are secured to the front base 34 through support pins113, 46 (common to the cassette double insertion preventing lid 45) and114 respectively so as to be freely rotatable in the directions ofarrows n,n′ corresponding to the upward and downward directions, in thedirections of arrows o,o′ and in the directions of arrows p,p′respectively. The cassette identification members 9 are rotationallyurged in the direction of the arrow n′ corresponding to the upwarddirection by an identification member spring corresponding to therotational urging means which is formed of a torsional coil spring, thecassette insertion guide 10 is rotationally urged in the direction ofthe arrow o corresponding to the downward direction by an insertionguide spring 116 corresponding to rotational urging means which isformed of a leaf spring, and the control lever 112 is rotationally urgedin the direction of the arrow p corresponding to the downward directionby a control lever spring 117 corresponding to rotational urging meanswhich is formed of a tension coil spring stronger than theidentification member spring 115.

The pair of right and left cassette identification members 9 aredisposed at both the right and left sides inside the cassette insertionport 4, and the cassette insertion guide 10 and the pair of right andleft control levers 112 are disposed at the positions which aredisplaced from the pair of right and left cassette identificationmembers 9 toward the cassette insertion direction side (the arrow adirection side). Further, the cassette insertion guide 116 is disposedbetween the pair of right and left cassette identification members 9,and the pair of right and left control levers 112 are disposed at theright and left sides of the pair of right and left cassetteidentification members 9. Further, a pair of right and left projections118 which are brought into contact with and separated from a pair ofright and left arms 112 a which are integrally formed on the upper endof the right and left sides of the pair of right and left control levers112, are formed at the right and left sides of the front end (the endportion in the arrow a′ direction) of the bottom plate 6 a of thecassette stage 6, and the control means 44 is constructed by the pair ofright and left control levers 112 and the projections 118.

A pair of right and left engaging pins 112 b which are integrally formedonto the inside of the upper end of the pair of right and left controllevers 112 are engaged with a pair of right and left engaging pieces 9 awhich are integrally formed in a substantially arcuate shape onto theoutside of the upper ends of the pair of right and left cassetteidentification members 9, and the pair of right and left engaging pins 9b which are formed integrally onto the inside of the pair of right andleft cassette identification members 9 are engaged with a pair of rightand left engaging pieces 10 a which are integrally formed in asubstantially L-shaped form to both the right and left ends of thecassette insertion guide 10. The cassette insertion guide 10 isprojected toward the cassette discharge direction side (the arrow a′direction side) from the pair of right and left support pins 46, and apair of right and left projecting portions 119 are integrally formed atthe right and left sides of the tip side of the cassette insertion guide10. The end surfaces of the pair of right and left projecting portions119 in the direction of the arrow a′ are formed on the cassette stoppersurface 120, and the inside surfaces of the pair of these right and leftprojecting portions 119 are formed on a pair of right and left cassetteguide surfaces 121 to guide the small-size tape cassette 1 onto thestage center P₁₁ in the cassette stage 6.

With respect to the cassette insertion preventing mechanism 111, asshown in FIGS. 17 and 18, when the cassette stage 6 is returned in thedirection of the arrow a′ to the cassette insertion position P₁, thepair of right and left projections 118 are brought into contact with thearms 112 a of the pair of right and left control levers 112 from thearrow a′ direction, and rotates the pair of right and left controllevers 112 against the control lever spring 117 in the direction of thearrow p′ corresponding to the upward direction to lock the controllevers 112 as they are. At this time, following the rotation of theengaging pins 112 b of the pair of right and left control levers 112 inthe direction of the arrow p′, the pair of right and left cassetteidentification-members 9 are rotated in the direction of the arrow n′corresponding to the upward and forward direction by the pair of rightand left identification member springs 115, so that the pair of rightand left cassette identification members 9 get into a cassette insertionspace 43 from the lower side and projected from the direction of thearrow n′ to the position which is closest to the cassette insertion port4. The pair of right and left engaging pieces 10 a of the cassetteinsertion guide 10 is pushed upwardly in the direction of the arrow n bythe pair of right and left engaging pins 9 b of the pair of right andleft cassette identifying members 9 to rotate the cassette insertionguide 10 against the insertion guide spring 116 in the direction of thearrow o′. Accordingly, the pair of right and left 119 get into thecassette insertion space 43 at the position where it is displaced to thedirection side of the arrow a by the pair of right and left cassetteidentification members 9. Accordingly, the cassette 6 is returned to thecassette insertion position P₁ whereby the cassette identificationmembers 9 and the cassette insertion guide 10 are upwardly moved in thedirection of an arrow I to the operation position in the cassetteinsertion space 43.

At this time, as indicated by a one-dotted chain line in FIG. 15 and bya solid line in FIG. 16, if the small-size tape cassette 1 is insertedsubstantially along the stage center P₁₁ when the small-size tapecassette 1 is inserted in the direction of the arrow a from the cassetteinsertion port 4 into the cassette stage 6, both the right and left sidesurfaces 1 b of the small-sized tape cassette 1 are guided between thepair of right and left cassette guide surfaces 121 of the cassetteinsertion guide 10, and the small-size tape cassette 1 is accuratelyguided onto the stage center P₁₁, whereby the small-size tape cassette 1can be accurately inserted to the insertion reference position P₁₂ inthe cassette stage 6.

At this time, as indicated by a two-dotted chain line in FIG. 15, whenthe small-size tape cassette 1 or another similar tape cassette iserroneously inserted in the direction of the arrow a into the cassettestage 6 from a position which is greatly deviated from the stage centerP₁₁ to the right side or left side, the cassette insertion guide 10 isnot downwardly pulled to the lower side of the cassette insertion space43 even when any one of the pair of right and left cassetteidentification members 9 is pushed by the small-size tape cassette 1.Therefore, the small-size tape cassette 1 is brought into contact withthe cassette stopper surface 120 of any one of the pair of right andleft projecting portions 119 of the cassette insertion guide 10, wherebythe erroneous insertion of the small-size tape cassette 1 or anothersimilar tape cassette can be prevented in advance.

Next, as indicated by a dotted line in FIGS. 15 and 16, when thelarge-size tape cassette 2 is inserted from the cassette insertion port4 into the cassette stage 6 in the direction of the arrow a, both theright and left side surfaces 2 b of the large-size tape cassette 2 areguided by both the right and left side walls 34 a of the front base 34,and inserted along the stage center P₁₁. At this time, as shown in FIG.19, the large-size tape cassette 2 is brought into contact with the pairof right and left cassette identification members 9 from the directionof the arrow a at the same time, and these pair of right and leftcassette identification members 9 are rotated against the pair of rightand left identification springs 115 in the direction of the arrow n atthe same time. In this case, at the instantaneous time when the pair ofright and left cassette identification members 9 are slightly rotated inthe direction of the arrow n, the pair of right and left engaging pins 9b are disengaged from the pair of right and left engaging pieces 10 a ofthe cassette insertion guide 10 in the direction of the arrow n at thesame time, and the cassette insertion guide 10 is rotated w in thedirection of the arrow o by the insertion guide spring 116, whereby thepair of right and left projecting portions 119 are instantaneouslypulled to the lower side of the cassette insertion space 43.Accordingly, the cassette insertion guide 10 can subsequently smoothlyinsert the large-size tape cassette 2 to the insertion referenceposition P₁₂ in the cassette stage 6 with no disturbance of theinsertion of the large-size tape cassette 2 by the cassette insertionguide 10.

Next, when the cassette stage 6 starts to move from the cassetteinsertion position P₁ in the direction of the arrow a in order to loadthe small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1,2 to the cassette mountposition Pa after the selective insertion of the small-size andlarge-size tape cassettes 1,2 into the cassette stage 6, as shown inFIGS. 20 and 21, the pair of right and left projections 118 of thecassette stage 6 are separated from the arms 112 a of the pair of rightand left control levers 112 in the direction of the arrow a. Therefore,the pair of right and left control levers 112 are simultaneously rotatedin the direction of the arrow p by the pair of right and left controllever springs 117, and the pair of right and left engaging pins 112 bpushes the pair of right and left engaging pieces 9 a of the pair ofright and left cassette identification members 9 in the direction of thearrow p. At this time, the pair of right and left cassetteidentification members 9 are rotated in the direction of the arrow nagainst the pair of right and left identification member springs 115, sothat the cassette insertion guide 10 is rotated in the direction of thearrow o by the insertion guide spring 116.

Accordingly, immediately after the cassette stage 6 starts to move fromthe cassette insertion position P₁ in the direction of the arrow a, thepair of right and left cassette identification members 9 and thecassette insertion guide 10 are descended in the direction of an arrowi′ to the lower side of the cassette insertion space 43 from theoperation position where they are ascended in the cassette insertionspace 43 by the pair of right and left control levers 112, andaccommodated at the accommodation position in the front base 34.Thereafter, the pair of right and left control levers 112 are locked atthe rotational position in the direction of the arrow p as they are bythe pair of right and left control lever springs 117. Therefore, thepair of right and left cassette identification members 9 and thecassette insertion guide 10 are locked at the accommodation position inthe front base 34 as they are.

Therefore, in the cassette loading position, the pair of right and leftcassette identification members 9 and the cassette insertion guide 10are downwardly pulled to the lower side of the cassette insertion space43, and accommodated in the front base 34. Accordingly, it has a verygood outward appearance, and even when a finger or the like iscarelessly inserted through the cassette insertion port 4, it is hard tocome into contact with the cassette identification members 9 or thecassette insertion guide 10. Further, since the pair of right and leftcontrol levers 112 are urged downwardly, that is, in the direction ofthe arrow p by the pair of right and left control lever springs 112,even when a finger or the like comes into contact with these controllevers 112, the control levers 112 are immediately rotationally returnedin the direction of the arrow p if the finger is detached. Therefore, itcan be perfectly prevented that the cassette identification members 9and the cassette insertion guide 10 are locked to be pulled out into thecassette insertion space 34 by a prank operation. Accordingly, there canbe prevented such a risk that the cassette stage 6 collides against thecassette identification members 9 or the cassette insertion guide 10which are carelessly pulled out into the cassette insertion space 34 atthe eject time of the cassette stage 6, so that these members mutuallydamage each other. Therefore, high safety can be kept.

According to the cassette erroneous insertion preventing mechanism 11 asdescribed above, as shown in FIGS. 17 and 18, the support pins 113 ofthe cassette identification members 9 and the support pins li4 of thecontrol levers 112 are separately disposed and the acting point distanceL₁₁ from the support pin 114 of the control lever 112 is set to belonger than the acting point distance L₁₂ from the support pin 113 ofthe cassette identification member 9 to the engaging pin 9 b, whereby arotational angle of the control levers 112 which is required to rotatethe cassette identification members 9 can be reduced. The depthdimension of the overall cassette erroneous insertion preventingmechanism 11 in the direction of the arrow a,a′ can be greatly reduced,and thus the depth dimension of the cassette stage 6 in the directionsof the arrows a,a′ can be increased. Particularly, the loading andejecting operations of the large-size tape cassette 2 can be performedwith high stability. Further, the arms 112 a of the control lever 112can be shortened, and the friction area between the arms and theprojections 118 of the cassette stage 6 can be reduced, so thatresistance to wear can be enhanced.

[Description of Stopper Block]

Next, as show in FIGS. 23 to 28, a pair of right and left stopper blocks12 which are formed of synthetic resin or the like and molded in asymmetrical shape at the right and left sides are inserted into the pairof right and left openings 35 which are formed in the bottom plate 6a ofthe cassette stage 6, and disposed so as to be equally shared to theright and left sides with respect to the stage center P₁₁. Both theright and left side ends which corresponds to the outsides of the pairof right and left stopper blocks 12 are fixed between a pair ofprojection pieces 36 which are vertically bent downwardly from thebottom plate 6a by a pair of right and left horizontal support pins 41so as to be freely rotatable in the directions of the arrows h,h′ whichcorrespond to the upward and downward directions. Further, a pair ofright and left cassette guides 12 a are symmetrically formed integrallyonto the upper surfaces of the pair of right and left stopper blocks 12,and on these upper surfaces, a pair of right and left cassette stoppers12 b which comprise vertically-shaped ribs are integrally formed at theend portions of the cassette insertion direction side (the arrow adirection side) at the inner positions of the cassette guides 12 a. Aslant surface 12C which is gradually upwardly oblique in the cassetteinsertion direction (the arrow a direction) is integrally formed at theend portion at the cassette discharge direction side (the arrow a′direction side) on the upper surfaces of the pair of right and leftstopper blocks 12, and stopper pieces 12 d are integrally formed at theend portions in the cassette discharge direction side on the lowersurfaces of the pair of right and left stopper blocks 12.

The axial lines P₁₃ of the pair of right and left support pins 41 areset in the range of 0° to 90° with respect to the stage center P₁₁lwhichis the cassette insertion direction. In this case, the axial lines P₁₃of the pair of right and left support pins 41 are set to have a taperangle θ₁₁ so that they are tapered in the cassette insertion direction(the direction of the arrow a) with respect to the stage center P₁₁Accordingly, the pair of right and left stopper blocks 12 are designedso as to freely move into and out of the cassette stage 6 in thedirections of the arrows h,h′ from the lower side of the bottom plate 6a. By the pair of right and left torsional coil springs 42 serving asthe rotational urging means which are inserted and secured to the outerperipheries of the pair of right and left support pins 41, these rightand left stopper blocks 12 get into the cassette stage 6 from thedirection of the arrow h as shown in FIG. 25 to bring the stopper piece12 d into contact with the bottom plate 6 a from the lower side and stopit. Accordingly, in such a state that these right and left stopperblocks 12 get into the cassette stage 6 from the direction of the arrowh, the pair of right and left cassette stoppers 12 b are upwardly offsetOF₁ from the pair of right and left support pins 41.

The pair of right and left stopper blocks 12 are constructed asdescribed above, and as shown in FIG. 25, before the cassette isinserted into the cassette stage 6, the pair of right and left stopperblocks 12 gets into the cassette stage 6 from the direction of the arrowh by the pair of right and left torsional coil springs 42, and thesecassette stoppers 12 b are upwardly projected to the positioncorresponding to a predetermined height H₁₁ As shown in FIG. 32, theheight H₁₁ is set to be higher than the height at which the small-sizetape cassette 1 is upwardly floated from the bottom plate 6 a of thecassette stage 6 when it is loaded onto the plural cassette positioningpins 8 of the cassette mount position P₃. That is, if the cassettestoppers 12 b are downwardly detached from the bottom plate 1 c of thesmall-size tape cassette 1 when the small-size tape cassette 1 is loadedto the cassette mount position P₃ and upwardly floated with respect tothe bottom plate 6 a, there is a probability that the cassette stoppers12 b cannot restore to the original engagement positions of the bottomplate 6 a of the small-size tape cassette 1 when the small-size tapecassette 1 is mounted on the bottom plate 6 a again at the cassetteeject time. However, the above inconvenience would never occurs if theheight H₁₁ is set to be higher than H₁.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 23 to 26, when the small-size tape cassette 1 isinserted from the direction of the arrow a substantially onto the stagecenter P₁₁ in the cassette stage 6, the pair of right and left stopperblocks 12 are pushed by the bottom plate Ic of the small-size tapecassette 1, slightly rotated in the direction of the arrow h′ againstthe pair of right and left torsional coil springs 42, and stopped at thestage that the cassette guides 12 a and the cassette stoppers 12 b arein a substantially vertical position. The pair of right and leftcassette guides 12 a guide the right and left side surfaces 1 b of thesmall-size tape cassette 1 to position the small-size tape cassette 1onto the stage center P₁₁, and also the pair of right and left cassettestoppers 12 b are relatively inserted into the pair of right and leftslits 65 of the small-size tape cassette in the direction of the arrowa′ to position the front end 1 a of the small-size tape cassette 1 tothe insertion reference position P₁₂. At this time, one cassette stopper12 b pushes the lock lever 66 of the small-size tape cassette 1 in thedirection of the arrow a′ to release the lock of the front lid 1A

At this time, the pair of right and left stopper blocks 12 are freelyrotatably secured to the bottom plate 6a by the pair of right and leftsupport pins 41 which are set in the range of 0° to 90° with respect tothe stage center P₁₁, and further the cassette stoppers 12 b areoffset-OF₁ upwardly with respect to the support pins 41. Therefore, evenwhen the small-size tape cassette 1 violently collides against the pairof right and left cassette stoppers 12 b, these cassette stoppers 12 bare not escaped in the direction of the arrow h′ which corresponds tothe downward direction, and also the small-size tape cassette 1 can bereceived firmly. Accordingly, the front end 1 a of the small-tapecassette 1 can be positioned to the insertion reference position P₁₂with high precision at all times. In this case, if the pair of right andleft support pins 41 are designed to have a tapered angle θ₁₁ so thatthey are tapered in the cassette insertion direction (the direction ofthe arrow a) as shown in FIG. 22, the small-size tape cassette 1 isbrought into contact with the pair of right and left cassette stoppers12 b from the direction of the arrow a. When a thrust force is appliedto the pair of right and left stopper blocks 12 in the direction of thearrow a, the pair of stopper blocks 12 are mutually attractivelyapproached to each other by the amount corresponding to the backlash ofthe pair of right and left support pins 41, and both the right and leftside surfaces 1 b of the small-size tape cassette 1 are pinched by thepair of cassette guides 12 a from both the right and left sides, wherebythe small-size tape cassette 1 can be positioned onto the stage centerP₁₁ with high precision.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 24 and 26, when the large-size tape cassette 2is inserted from the direction of the arrow a into the cassette stage 6,the tip 2 a thereof gets over the slant surfaces 12 c of the pair ofright and left stock blocks 12, and * the pair of right and left stopperblocks 12 are intensively escaped against the pair of right and lefttorsional coil springs 42 in the direction of the arrow h′ until theyare put under the bottom plate 6 a. Accordingly, the pair of right andleft stopper blocks 12 never obstruct to insert the large-size tapecassette 2, and thus the large-size cassette tape 2 can be smoothlyinserted into the cassette stage 6 in the direction of the arrow a. Atthis time, the pair of right and left cassette guides 37 formed on thebottom plate 6 a are relatively inserted from the direction of the arrowa′ into the pair of right and left slits 65 of the large-size tapecassette 2, and the large-size tape cassette 2 is positioned onto thestage center P₁₁. When the front end 2 a of the large-size tape cassette2 abuts against the pair of right and left cassette stoppers 11 on thebottom plate 6 a to be positioned to the insertion reference positionP₁₂, the pair of right and left cassette guide pieces 37 relativelypushes the pair of right and left lock levers 66 in the direction of thearrow a′ to release the lock of the front lid 2A.

Accordingly, since the pair of right and left torsional coil springs 42which serve to rotationally urge the pair of stopper blocks 12 in thedirection of the arrow h may merely produce such a weak force as tosupport the dead weight of the stopper blocks 12, the force with whichthe pair of right and left stopper blocks 12 upwardly lifts thesmall-size and large-size tape cassettes 1, 2 under the reaction forceof the these torsional coil springs, can be reduced extremely. Asdescribed above, the clamp force to press and fix the small-size andlarge-size tape cassettes 1,2 onto the bottom plate 6a by the cassettepress lever 92 can be sufficiently reduced. Accordingly, the insertionoperation of the small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1,2 into thecassette stage 6 can be easily performed with very weak force, and alsothe small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1,2 can be easily insertedand accurately positioned to the insertion reference position P₁₂.

[Description of Cassette Slant Insertion Preventing Mechanism]

Next, as shown in FIGS. 29 to 32, the cassette slant insertionpreventing mechanism 49 has a cassette slant insertion preventingstopper 48 and a lid opening/closing lever 131 which are formed ofsynthetic resin or the like. The front lid opening/closing lever 131 issecured to the right and left side plates 6 b of the cassette stage 6through a pair of right and left horizontal support pins so as to befreely rotatable in the directions of arrows k,k′ corresponding to theupward and downward directions, and the rear end (the end portion of thearrow a direction side) 48 a of the cassette slant insertion preventingstopper 48 is secured to the upper end 131 a of the front lidopening/closing lever 131 through a pair of right and left horizontalsupport pins 133 so as to be freely rotatable in the directions ofarrows q,q′ corresponding to the upward and downward directions.

A hook portion 131b which is commonly engageable with the front lids 1A,2A of the small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1,2 from the lowerside is integrally formed at the position which is at the lower end sideof the front lid opening/closing lever 131 and near to the centerthereof. Further, plural engaging projections 48 a onto the top plateportion 92 b of the cassette press lever 92 which serves as a stoppersupport portion are integrally formed to the front end (the end portionin the arrow a′ direction side) of the cassette slant insertionpreventing stopper 48 so as to be spaced from one another at intervalsin the right and left directions. Plural guide surfaces 48 b are formedso as to extend from the plural projections 48 a to the lower surface ofthe cassette insertion preventing stopper 48, and plural semi-circularprojections 48 c which abut against the lower surface of the chassis topplate 33 serving as a stopper press portion are integrally formed on theupper surface of the cassette slant insertion preventing stopper 48 soas to be spaced from one another at intervals in the right and leftdirection.

As shown in FIGS. 29 and 31, before insertion of the cassette into thecassette stage 6, the cassette slant insertion preventing stopper 48 andthe front lid opening/closing lever 131 are rotated in the direction ofthe arrow k′ due to their dead weight, and the plural projections 48 aof the cassette slant insertion preventing stopper 48 are mounted on thetop plate portion 92 b. As shown in FIG. 31, the small-size andlarge-size tape cassettes 1,2 are selectively inserted from the cassetteinsertion port 4 in the direction of the arrow a. If the small-size andlarge-size tape cassettes 1,2 are obliquely inserted at an upwardlyoblique angle θ₁ with respect to the horizontal reference as indicatedby a solid line when the tape cassettes 1,2 are selectively insertedinto the cassette stage 6 in the direction of the arrow a while theopening/closing lid 5 is pushed and opened in the direction of the arrowc by these tape cassettes 1,2, the front lids 1A,2A of the small-sizeand large-size tape cassettes 1,2 are brought into contact with theplural guide surfaces 48 c of the cassette slant insertion preventingstoppers 48 obliquely from the lower side to thereby push up thecassette slant insertion preventing stopper 48 in the direction of thearrow q′. At this time, the plural projections 48 d of the cassetteslant insertion preventing stopper 48 abut against the lower surface ofthe chassis top plate 33 from the lower surface, and the floatation ofthe cassette slant insertion preventing stopper 48 in the direction ofthe arrow q′ is prevented.

The front lids 1A,2A of the small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1,2are guided by the plural guide surfaces 48 a, and held down in thedirection of the arrow r corresponding to the forward and downwarddirection, thereby preventing the slant insertion of the small-size andlarge-size tape cassettes 1,2 into the cassette stage 6 in advance. Thesmall-size and large-size which are selectively inserted into thecassette stage 6 are horizontally pressed and fixed onto the bottomplate 6 a by the cassette press force of the cassette press lever 92.After the cassette insertion, when the small-size and large-size tapecassettes 1,2 are selectively loaded to the cassette mount position P3from the direction of the arrow b as shown in FIG. 32 after thesmall-size and large-size tape cassettes 1,2 are horizontally retractedfrom the cassette insertion position P₁ to the cassette retract positionP2 in the direction of the arrow a, as show in FIGS. 5 to 7, the frontlid opening/closing lever 131 is relatively pushed up in the directionof the arrow b′ by the front lid opening/closing plate 134 which isintegrally formed with one rack guide 73 and fixed at a fixed position,whereby the front lid opening/closing lever 131 is rotated in thedirection of the allow k.

The cassette slant insertion preventing stopper 48 is pushed out in thedirection of the arrow k by the front lid opening/closing lever 131, andthe cassette slant insertion preventing stopper 48 is pushed up from thedirection of the arrow k onto the top plate portion 92 b of the cassettepress lever 92 by the guide surface 48. At the same time, a part of thefront lid 1A,2A of the small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1,2 ishooked by a hook portion 131 b of the front opening/closing lever 131,whereby the front lids IA, 2A are opened in the direction of the arrowk. That is, the front opening/closing lever 131 can smoothly open thefront lids 1A, 2A while retracting the cassette slant insertionpreventing stopper 48 from the inside of the opening/closing space S₁ inthe direction of the arrow k rearwardly and upwardly. The small-size andlarge-size tape cassettes 1,2 which are selectively loaded from thedirection of the arrow b to the cassette mount position P₃ areselectively held onto the plural cassette positioning pins 8 at thecassette mount position P₃ through the common reference hole 14, wherebythe small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1,2 are pushed up (floated)to the height H₁ above the bottom plate 6 a of the cassette stage 6. Atthe same time, the small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1,2 areaccurately pressed and horizontally fixed onto the plural cassettepositioning pins 8 by the cassette press force of the cassette presslever 92.

In FIG. 31, by fixing a leaf spring member or the like for elasticallypressing the cassette slant insertion preventing stopper 48 downwardlyat the lower side of the chassis top plate 33, the small-size andlarge-size tape cassettes 1,2 can be more effectively prevented frombeing obliquely inserted in a forward and upward direction.

[Description of Cassette Insertion and Type Detection Mechanism]

Next, as shown in FIGS. 33 to 42 a cassette insertion and type detectionmechanism 14 for selecting the insertion position and type of thesmall-size and large-size tape cassettes 1,2 which are selectivelyinserted into the cassette stage 6 is secured to the lower portion ofthe bottom plate 6a of the cassette stage 6. The cassette insertion andtype detection mechanism 141 is designed so that as shown in FIGS. 3 and4, the common detection target portions 15,16 at one end side of therespective pairs of right and left detection target portions 15,16 whichare formed in the small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1,2 aredetected by one common detection lever 51, and the first and seconddetection target portions which are arranged at different positions atthe other end side are detected by a double lever mechanism 55comprising first and second detection levers 51 and 52. The twodetection levers 51 which are symmetrical between the right and leftsides are formed of metal plates or the like, and the second detectionlever 52 at the double lever mechanism 55 is formed of synthetic resinor the like.

One detection lever 51 and the first and second detection levers 51, 52of the double lever mechanism 55 are fixed in the neighborhood of boththe right and left ends of the lower portion of the bottom plate 6 a ofthe cassette stage 6 through the vertical support pins 142 so as to befreely rotatable symmetrically in the directions of the arrows e,e′ onthe horizontal plane. Accordingly, the first and the second detectionlevers 51, 52 of the double lever mechanism 55 are freely rotationallysecured to the common support pin 142. The two detection levers 51 atboth the right and left sides are rotationally urged in the direction ofthe arrow e′ by the pair of right and left tension coil springs 144serving as the rotational urging means, and the second detection lever52 of the double lever mechanism 55 is rotationally urged in thedirection of the arrow e′ by the torsion coil spring 145 serving as therotational urging means. A pair of light reflection type optical sensors22 are secured to the lower portion of the bottom plate 6 at the side ofone detection lever 51 while the sensors are put face down, and twopairs of light reflection type optical sensors 22, 23 for detecting thepositions of the first and second detection levers 51 and 52respectively are secured to the lower portion of the bottom plate 6 a atthe side of the double lever mechanism 55 while the sensors are put facedown. Further, light reflection plates 56 and 57 are secured to thetotally three detection levers 51 and 52, and a projection 53 forpushing the first detection lever 51 in the direction of the arrow e andan optical shutter 54 for inhibiting the operation of the optical sensor22 for detecting the position of the first detection lever 51 areintegrally formed with the second detection lever 52 of the double levermechanism 55. The optical shutter 54 is designed so as to be movable ina space between the optical sensor 22 and the light reflection plate 56in the directions of the arrows e,e′. Further, one end 51 a which is theinner side end of each of the two detection levers 51 at both the rightand left sides is constructed as a detection portion, and the projection53 in the second detection lever 52 of the double lever mechanism 55 isconstructed as a detection portion. The one ends 51 a of the twodetection levers 51 and the projection 58 of the second detection lever52 are vertically projected into the cassette stage 6 at the front sideof the front end (the end portion in the arrow a direction side) of thebottom plate 6 a of the cassette stage 6.

In the cassette insertion and type detection mechanism 141, as shown inFIGS. 33, 36 and 39, totally three detection levers 51, 52 are rotatedand restored in the direction of the arrow e′ by the tension coil spring144 and the torsion coil spring 145 before the cassette insertion intothe cassette stage 6. As shown in FIGS. 34, 37 and 40, when thesmall-size tape cassette 1 is correctly inserted from the arrow adirection to the insertion reference position P₁₂ on the stage center P₁in the cassette stage 6, a pair of right and left detection targetportions 15 of the small-size tape cassette 1 abuts against the one ends51 a serving as the detection target portions of the pair of right andleft detection levers 51 from the direction of the arrow a, and the pairof right and left detection levers 51 are rotated in the direction ofthe arrow a against the tension coil spring 145. At this time, the pairof right and left light reflection plates 56 of the pair of right andleft detection levers 51 are moved to the lower side of the pair ofright and left optical sensors 22, so that the pair of right and leftoptical sensors 22 are turned on to detect the rotational positions ofthe pair of right and left detection levers 51 by the pair of right andleft optical sensors 22, thereby simultaneouslyperforming the typedetection indicating that the inserted cassette is a small-size tapecassette 1 and the insertion position detection indicating that thesmall-size tape cassette 1 is correctly inserted to the insertionreference position.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 35, 38 and 41, when the large-size tape cassette2 is correctly inserted in the direction of the arrow a to the insertionreference position P12on the stage center Phd 11 in the cassette stage6, the pair of right and left detection target portions 16 of thelarge-size tape cassette 2 abuts against the one end 51 a serving as thedetection portion of one detection lever 51 and the projection 53serving as the detection portion of the second detection lever 52 of thedouble lever mechanism 55 from the direction of the arrow a. At thistime, the one detection lever 51 is simply rotated in the direction ofthe arrow e in the same manner as described above, and one opticalsensor 22 is turned on. However, in the double lever mechanism 55, thesecond detection lever 52 is first rotated against the torsion coilspring 145 in the direction of the arrow e around the common support pin142.

The optical shutter 54 of the second detection lever 52 preferentiallymoves to the lower side of the optical sensor 22 in a space between theoptical sensor 22 and the light reflection plate 56 to inhibit theoperation of the optical sensor 22 (to inhibit the shift from OFF to ONand lock the optical sensor to OFF state), and at the same time theprojection 53 of the second detection lever 52 abuts against theprojection 58 of the first detection lever 51 from the direction of thearrow e to push and move the first detection lever 51 against thetension coil spring 144 around the common support pin 142 in thedirection of the arrow e. The light reflection plate 57 of the seconddetection lever 52 is moved to the lower side of the optical sensor 23to turn on the optical sensor 23, and the rotational position of thesecond detection lever 52 is detected by the optical sensor 23. On theother hand, the light reflection plate 56 of the first detection lever51 which is pushed and moved in the direction of the arrow e is alsomoved to the lower side of the optical sensor 22. However, the opticalshutter 54 which preferentially moves has stopped below the opticalsensor 22, so that the optical sensor 22 is kept in OFF state.

Accordingly, when the large-size tape cassette 2 is correctly insertedto the insertion reference position P₁₂ on the stage center P₁₁ in thecassette stage 6, the two optical sensors 22 and 23 are turned on tosimultaneously perform the type detection indicating that the insertedcassette is a large-size tape cassette 2 and the insertion positiondetection indicating that the large-size tape cassette 2 is correctlyinserted to the insertion reference position P₁₂. In addition, since atthis time the second detection lever 51 is pushed and moved in thedirection of the arrow e by the projection 53 of the first detectionlever 52, as shown in FIGS. 38 and 41 the rotational angle of the firstdetection lever 51 in the direction of the arrow e is increased, and theone end 51 a thereof is separated in the direction of the arrow a fromthe front lid 2A of the large-size tape cassette 2, thereby forming agap 24 therebetween. Accordingly, when the large-size tape cassette 2 isloaded to the cassette mount position P₃ to open the front lid 2A afterthe cassette insertion as described above, or when the large-size tapecassette 2 is ejected from the cassette mount position P₃ to close thefront lid 2 a, the front lid 2A can be smoothly opened/closed with nointerference with the one end 51 a of the first detection lever 51.

According to the cassette insertion position and type identificationmechanism 141 as described above, the insertion position detection andthe type detection of the small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1,2can be performed by commonly applying the first and second detectionlevers 51, 52 of the double lever mechanism 55 to these cassettes.Therefore, the number of parts and the number of steps can be reduced,and the saving of the space and the reduction of the cost can beperformed. In addition, when the second detection lever 52 performs theinsertion position detection and the type detection of the large-sizetape cassette 2, the operation of the optical sensor 22 for the firstdetection lever 51 which is used to perform the insertion positiondetection and the type detection of the small-size tape cassette 1 isinhibited by the optical shutter 54 of the second detection lever 51.Therefore, the operations of the two optical sensors 22, 23 fordetecting the positions of the first and second detection levers 51 and52 are made clear, and a cumbersome adjustment work in a fabricationprocess is unnecessary. Further, when the large-size tape cassette 2 isinserted, the first detection lever 51 is pushed and moved by theprojection 53 of the second detection lever 52 to violently separate theone end 51a of the first detection lever 51 from the front lid 2A of thelarge-size tape cassette 2. Therefore, the front lid 2A can be smoothlyopened/closed with no interference of the one end 51a of the firstdetection lever 51. The optical sensors 22, 23 used for the cassetteinsertion and type detection mechanism 141 are not limited to the lightreflection type optical sensors, but a light transmission type opticalsensor may be used.

[Description of Cassette Discharge Mechanism]

Next, as shown in FIGS. 33 to 47B, in the cassette discharge mechanismthe pair of right and left detection levers 51 and 52 are also used as acassette discharge lever, and in the following description, thesedetection levers 51, 52 are described as cassette discharge levers 51,52. The pair of right and left cam driven levers 28 for driving the pairof right and left cassette discharge levers 51, 52 are secured to thepair of right and left side plate portions 92 a of the cassette presslever 92 in the cassette stage 6 through the pair of right and lefthorizontal support pins 29 so as to be freely rotatable in thedirections of the arrows g,g′ on the vertical plane. The pair of rightand left cam driven levers 28 are suspended at the lower side of thepair of right and left support pins 29, and the pair of cams 31comprising rollers are rotationally freely secured in a horizontalmoving locus of the directions of the arrows a,a′ of the lower ends 28 aof the pair of right and left cam driven levers 28 inside the pair ofright and left chassis side plates 32 shown in FIGS. 4 to 8.

At this time, as shown in FIGS. 47A to 47B, a pair of right and left camdriven levers 28 are formed of synthetic resin, and a contact portion 39to the other end 51 b of the cassette discharge lever 51 is integrallyformed at the inside position of the lower end 28 a which is broughtinto contact with the cam 31, and the a leaf spring portion 38 which isbent substantially upwardly in a wavelike form from the side surface ofthe arrow g direction side of the contact portion 39. Further, a stopperpin 38 a which is in parallel to the axial direction of the support pin29 is integrally formed at the upper end of the leaf spring portion 38,and a securing hole 28 b for the support pin 29 is formed at the upperend of each of the pair of right and left cam driven levers 28. Further,two stoppers 40a, 40b for positionally regulating the stopper pins 38 awithin a fixed range at two positions on the peripheries of the supportpins 29 are formed at the lower end edges of the pair of right and leftside plates 92 a of the cassette press lever 92 to which the pair ofright and left cam driven levers 28 are freely rotationally securedthrough the pair of right and left support pins 29. The leaf springportion 38, the stopper pin 38a and the two stoppers 40 a, 40 bconstitute the control means 50 for positionally regulating the camdriven levers 28 at the intermediate position within its swing range andwith some degree of freedom in a fixed range.

That is, the swing range θ₁₁ shown in FIG. 46 is set so that the lowerend 28 a of the cam driven lever 28 can keep a suitable over-lap amountOV with the cam 31 which is horizontally moved relatively in thedirections of the arrows a,a′, and also the cam driven lever 28 can besmoothly rotated in the directions of the arrows g,g′ by the cam 31which is horizontally moved relatively in the directions of the arrowsa,a′, and the control means 50 serves to positionally regulate the camdriven lever 28 at the intermediate position within the swing range θ₁₁and with some degree of freedom within a fixed range θ_(12.).

According to the cassette discharge mechanism, as shown in FIGS. 34 and35, when the small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1, 2 areselectively inserted from the direction of the arrow a to the insertionreference position P₁₂ in the cassette stage 6, the pair of right andleft cassette discharge levers 51 are symmetrically rotated in thedirection of the arrow e, and the small-size and large-size tapecassettes 1,2 are pressed and fixed onto the bottom plate 6a of thecassette stage 6 by the cassette press force of the cassette press lever92, whereby the pair of right and left cassette discharge levers 51 arestopped at the rotational position in the direction of the arrow e.

At this time, when the cam driven lever 29 is rotated in the directionof the arrow g′ until it reaches the position as indicated by a solidline in FIG. 44, the stopper pin 38 a abuts against one stopper 40 b,and the further free rotation of the cam driven lever 28 in thedirection of the arrow g′ is regulated, so that the cam driven lever 28is stopped at the position indicated by the solid line. The stopposition of the cam driven lever 28 indicated by the solid line is themaximum value in the direction of the arrow g′ of the swing range θ₁₂having the degree of freedom which is indicated by the solid line inFIG. 46, and at this time, as shown in FIG. 44, a fixed gap is keptbetween the contact portion 39 of the cam driven lever 28 and the otherend 51 b of the cassette discharge lever 51.

Next, when the cam driven lever 28 is rotated in the direction of thearrow g until it reaches the position indicated by a one-dotted chainline in FIG. 44, the stopper pin 38a abuts against the other stopper 40a, and the further free rotation of the cam driven lever 28 in thedirection of the arrow g is regulated, whereby the cam driven lever 28is stopped at the position indicated by one-dotted chain line. Theposition of the cam driven lever 28 indicated by the one-dotted chainline is set to the maximum value in the direction of the arrow g of theswing range θ₁₂ having the degree of freedom indicated by the one-dottedchain line in FIG. 46.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 44, when the cassette stage 6 ishorizontally moved from the cassette insertion position P₁ in thedirection of the arrow a in order to load to the cassette mount positionP₃ the small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1,2 which areselectively inserted into the cassette stage 6, the cam 31 relativelyabuts against the lower end 28 a of the cam driven lever 28 from thedirection of the arrow a′ in the course of the movement, and the camdriven lever 28 is rotated in the direction of the arrow g from the stopposition indicated by a solid line to the stop position indicated by aone-dotted chain line. Subsequently, through the relative movement ofthe cam 31 in the directionof the arrowa, the cam driven lever 28 isfurther rotated in the direction of the arrow g from the stop positionindicated by a one-dotted chain line to get over the cam 31. At thistime, the leaf spring portion 38 is slacked against elasticity, and therestoring force of the cam driven lever 28 in the direction of the arrowg′ is charged to the leaf spring portion 38.

At the instantaneous time when the cam driven lever 28 gets over the cam31 moving relatively in the direction of the arrow a′, the cam drivenlever 28 is rotationally returned in the direction of the arrow g′ bythe restoring force charged to the leaf spring portion 38. However, atthe instantaneous time when the cam driven lever 28 passes over the stopposition indicated by a one-dotted chain line in the direction of thearrow g′, the stopper pin 38 a is separated from the stopper 40 a in thedirection of the arrow g′, and the restoring force of the cam drivenlever 28 in the direction of the arrow g′ by the leaf spring portion 38is extinguished. Therefore, the reverse rotational force of the camdriven lever 28 in the direction of the arrow g′ is very weak, and thecam driven lever 28 is highly stably stopped at the stop positionindicated by the solid line at the instantaneous time when the camdriven lever 28 is rotated in the direction of the arrow g′ until thestop position indicated by the solid line and the stopper pin 38a abutsagainst the stopper 40.

Accordingly, the gap 27 is kept between the contact portion 39 of thecam driven lever 28 which is reversely rotated in the direction of thearrow g′ and the other end 51 b of the cassette discharge lever 51, andthe contact portion 39 of the cam driven lever 28 does not abut againstthe other end 51 b of the cassette discharge lever 51 from the directionof the arrow g′. Even if the contact portion 39 abuts against the otherend 51 b in the direction of the arrow g′, the impact at that time isvery weak, and thus there occurs no uncomfortable impact sound “clicksound”.

Accordingly, it can be prevented in advance that since the contactportion 39 of the cam driven lever 28 strongly impinges against theother end 51 b of the cassette discharge lever 51 from the direction ofthe arrow g′, the cassette discharge lever 51 is carelessly rotated inthe direction of the arrow e′ corresponding to the cassette dischargedirection in the course of the cassette loading operation, so that thesmall-size and large-size tape cassettes 1, 2 in the cassette stage 6are carelessly displaced in the direction of the arrow a′ to induce theloading miss of the small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1, 2.Further, since the contact portion 39 of the cam driven lever 28 doesnot strongly collide against the other end 51 b of the cassettedischarge lever 51 from the direction of the arrow g′, the left time ofthe cam driver lever 28 and the cassette discharge lever 51 can beincreased. Particularly, the cam driven lever 28 can be formed ofsynthetic resin or the like, and it can be manufactured at a low cost.

Next, as shown in FIG. 45, when the cassette stage 6 is horizontallymoved to the cassette insertion position P₁ in the direction of thearrow a′ in order to eject the small-size and large-size tape cassettes1, 2 from the cassette mount position P₃ to the cassette insertionposition P₁ by the small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1,2, the cam31 abuts against the lower end 28 a of the cam driven lever 28 from thedirection of the arrow a in the course of the movement, and the camdriven lever 28 is rotated in the direction of the arrow g′ from thestop position indicated by the solid line in FIG. 44 to the positionshown in FIG. 45. At this time, the contact portion 39 of the cam drivenlever 28 strongly pushes the other end 51 b of the cassette dischargelever 51, and the pair of right and left cassette discharge levers 51are simultaneously rotated in the direction of the arrow e′, whereby thesmall-size and large-size tape cassettes 1,2 in the cassette stage 6 aredischarged in the direction of the arrow a′ by a fixed distance. Thedischarge stroke of the small-size and large-size tape cassettes 1,2 inthe direction of the arrow a′ is dependent on the thickness T₁, T₂, etc.of these tape cassettes 1,2. The discharge stroke of the small-size tapecassette 1 is set to be large, and the discharge stroke of thelarge-size tape cassette 2 is set to be small. As shown in FIG. 45, whenthe cam driven lever 28 is rotated in the direction of the arrow g′, theleaf spring portion 38 is slacked against its elasticity, and therestoring force of the cam driven lever 28 in the direction of the arrowg is charged to the leaf spring portion 38. At the instantaneous timewhen the cam driven lever 28 gets over the cam 31 in the direction ofthe arrow a′, the cam driven lever 28 is rotationally returned in thedirection of the arrow g by the restoring force.

The embodiments of the present invention are described above. However,the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, andvarious modifications may be made on the basis of the technical conceptof the present invention. For example, application of the presentinvention is not limited to a video cassette recorder, and it mayapplied to various kinds of cassette type recording and reproducingapparatuses.

The cassette type recording and reproducing apparatus of the presentinvention has the following effects.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a cassette typerecording and reproducing apparatus in that in a tape cassette ejectingoperation, the cam driven lever is kicked by the cam, and the cassettedischarge lever is rotated by the kicked cam driven lever, whereby thetape cassette in the cassette stage is pushed out in the cassettedischarge direction by the cassette discharge lever is provided withcontrol means for positionally regulating the cam driven lever with somedegree of freedom in a fixed range and at the intermediate position ofthe swing range in which the cam driven lever is rotated by the cam.Therefore, it can be prevented in advance that the cam driven leverviolently collides against the cassette discharge lever in the course ofthe cassette loading operation to produce an uncomfortable sound “clicksound”, and the tape cassette in the cassette stage is pushed anddisplaced by the cassette discharge lever due to the impact of thecollision, so that the tape cassette cannot be accurately mounted to theplural cassette positioning pins (not shown) at the cassette mountposition to induce a cassette loading miss. In order to prevent thepositional displacement of the tape cassette in the cassette stage, nospecial countermeasure to increase the clamp force of the tape cassettein the cassette stage is unnecessary, and rather the camp force ca besufficiently reduced. Accordingly, the tape cassette may be dischargedwith a weak force by the cassette discharge lever at the eject time, andthe rigidity of the cassette discharge lever and the cam driven lever isnot necessary to be increased, so that reduction in cost and enhancementin reliability can be achieved.

Further, according to the second aspect of the present invention, thecam driven lever is formed of synthetic resin or the like, and the camdriven lever is positionally regulated with some degree of freedom in afixed range by the leaf spring portion which is integrally formed withthe cam driven lever and the plural stoppers which are formed in thecassette stage, so that the cam driven lever can be positionallyregulated accurately with some degree of freedom in the fixed range witha small number of parts and a small number of fabrication steps and in asimple structure.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, when thecassette stage is returned to the cassette insertion position, thecassette insertion port of the front panel is closed by theopening/closing lid secured to the cassette stage, and the cassettedouble insertion preventing lid is evacuated to the lid openingposition. When the cassette stage is moved from the cassette insertionposition to the cassette mount position, the cassette double insertionpreventing lid is moved from the lid opening position to the lid closingposition so that the inside of the cassette insertion port is closed bythe cassette double insertion preventing lid. Therefore, the cassettedouble insertion, etc. can be prevented in advance when the tapecassette has been loaded, thereby enhancing the safety of the apparatus.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, theopening/closing lid is also used as the cassette press member forpressing the tape cassette in the cassette stage, so that the number ofparts and the number of fabrication processes can be reduced, and thecost can be reduced.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the cassettedouble insertion preventing lid is opened/closed by the opening/closingmechanism which is driven by the cassette loading mechanism, so that theloading motor is also used as the cassette double insertion preventinglid to perform the opening/closing operation and thus the constructioncan be simplified. In addition, the cassette double insertion preventinglid can be opened/closed at a good timing which is synchronized with themovement of the cassette stage, and thus there occurs no risk that thecassette stage and the cassette double insertion preventing lid collideagainst each other and thus they are damaged together, resulting inenhancement of the safety.

According to the sixth aspect of present invention, the apparatus isdesigned so that the front lid portion of the tape cassette into whichthe cassette slant insertion preventing stopper secured to the cassettestage is inserted is relatively pushed from the upper side to preventthe forwardly and upwardly slant insertion of the tape cassette into thecassette stage in advance. Therefore, there never occurs such a loadingmiss that the tape cassette is loaded while it is carelessly obliquelyinserted into the cassette stage, and the reliability and safety areenhanced. In addition, when the tape cassette is loaded from thecassette insertion position to the cassette mount position by thecassette stage, the cassette slant insertion preventing stopper isescaped to the upper side of the cassette stage, so that the front lidof the tape cassette can be smoothly opened with no interference withthe cassette slant insertion preventing stopper.

According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, when thecassette stage is moved to the cassette insertion position, the cassetteslant insertion preventing stopper is burrowed into the lower side ofthe top plate of the chassis. Therefore, when the cassette slantinsertion preventing lever is about to be pushed up by the tape cassettewhich is inserted in the forwardly upwardly slant direction into thecassette stage, the cassette slant insertion preventing stopper abutsagainst the top plate of the chassis to prevent the cassette slantinsertion preventing stopper from being upwardly floated. Therefore, itis not necessary to support the cassette slant insertion preventingstopper with a complicated mechanism, so that the construction can besimplified and the cost can be reduced.

According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, when thecassette stage is moved to the cassette mount position, the cassetteslant insertion preventing stopper is escaped onto the mount table ofthe cassette stage. Therefore, when the tape cassette is loaded to thecassette mount position, the tape cassette is prevented from interferingwith the cassette slant insertion preventing stopper even when it isfloated upwardly from the cassette stage.

According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, the cassetteslant insertion preventing stopper is freely rotatably secured to thefront lid opening/closing lever which is freely rotatably secured to thecassette stage. Therefore, when the tape cassette is loaded to thecassette mount position by the cassette stage and the front lid of thetape cassette is upwardly opened by the front lid opening/closing lever,the cassette slant insertion preventing stopper can be easily escapedout of the front lid opening/closing space by the front lidopening/closing lever, so that the front lid opening/closing lever canbe also used as the driving lever of the cassette slant insertionpreventing stopper. Accordingly, the number of parts and the number offabrication steps can be reduced, and the cost can be also reduced.

According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, when thecassette stage is moved from the cassette insertion position to thecassette mount position side, the accommodation control means isactuated to automatically accommodate the cassette insertion guide andthe cassette identifying member from its operation position in thecassette insertion space to the accommodation position out of thecassette insertion space. Therefore, under the cassette loading state,the cassette insertion guide and the cassette identifying member arelittle seen from the outside of the cassette insertion port.Accordingly, the outward appearance is remarkably better, and there canbe beforehand prevented such an accident that an operator carelesslytouches the cassette insertion guide, the cassette identifying member orthe like to carelessly jump out these members from the cassetteinsertion space, so that the tape cassette carelessly collides againstthe cassette insertion guide, the cassette identifying member or thelike in the cassette eject operation, and damages these members.Therefore, the reliability and safety can be more enhanced.

According to the eleventh and twelfth aspects of the present invention,when the cassette stage is moved from the cassette insertion position tothe cassette mount position, the control lever is driven by the controllever urging means so that the cassette identifying member and thecassette insertion guide which are moved to the operation position inthe cassette insertion space are accommodated at the accommodationposition out of the cassette insertion space. Therefore, the cassetteinsertion guide and the cassette identifying member can be accommodatedat the accommodation position out of the cassette insertion space in thecassette loading operation with a simple construction. In addition, thecontrol lever and the cassette insertion guide are driven by the urgingmeans to perform the accommodation operation. Therefore, the operationcan be surely performed, and these members are never jumped out of thecassette insertion space even when the operator carelessly touches thesemembers. Accordingly, the reliability and the safety can be moreenhanced.

The two cassette identifying members are disposed at two positions whichare in the neighborhood of both the right and left ends of the cassetteinsertion port, and the cassette insertion guide is escaped out of thecassette insertion space only when the pair of right and left cassetteidentifying members are simultaneously driven by the large-size tapecassette. Therefore, even when only one of the cassette identifyingmembers is driven to erroneously insert the small-size tape cassette orthe like from a position which is greatly deviated to the right or leftside of the cassette insertion port, the erroneous insertion of thesmall-size tape cassette can be surely prevented by the cassetteinsertion guide, and thus the reliability is very high.

According to the thirteenth aspect of the present invention, when pluraltypes of tape cassettes which are different in size are selectivelyinserted into the cassette stage, two detection targets which are formedat different positions with respect to the positioning reference holeswhich are common to these tape cassettes are detected by the twodetection levers of the double lever mechanism respectively, whereby theinsertion position detection and the type detection of the tape cassetteare simultaneously performed. In this case, for example, when alarge-size tape cassette is inserted and the second detection lever isactuated, the first detection lever is pushed by the second detectionlever to move the first detection lever to a position where it does notinterfere with the large-size tape cassette. In addition, the operationof the position detecting optical sensor of the first detection lever isinhibited by an optical shutter plate of the second detection lever.Therefore, the insertion position detection and the type detection ofthe tape cassette can be simultaneously performed by only the twodetection levers and the optical sensor. Accordingly, the cost can bereduced and the space can be saved because the number of parts and thenumber of fabrication steps can be reduced, and also the reliability canbe enhanced because the number of optical sensors is reduced. Further,when a large-size tape cassette is detected, the first detection leveris pushed by the second detection lever, and the operation of theoptical sensor for detecting the first detection lever is inhibited bythe optical shutter of the second detection lever. Therefore, it isunnecessary to adjust the position of the optical sensor, and thus thefabrication is facilitated.

According to the fourteenth aspect of the present invention, the firstand second detection levers are freely rotatably fixed around the commonsupporting pins of the cassette stage, so that the number of parts andthe number of fabrication steps are reduced, and thus the cost can bereduced.

Accordingly to the fifteenth aspect of the present invention, the firstdetection lever is also used as a cassette discharge lever, so that thenumber of parts and the number of fabrication steps can be reduced, andthus the cost can be reduced.

According to the sixteenth aspect of the present invention, the pair ofright and left stopper blocks are freely rotatably secured to thecassette stage by the pair of right and left supporting pins. Therefore,these stopper blocks never suffers deformation such as distortion or thelike due to external force, and the pair of right and left rotationalurging means may merely produce weak force with which the dead weight ofthe stopper blocks can be supported. Accordingly, in the case where thelarge-size tape cassette is inserted into the cassette stage, the pairof right and left stopper blocks can be easily escaped out of thecassette stage, and the large-size tape cassette can be easily insertedinto the cassette stage with the weak force. On the other hand, in thecase where the small-size tape cassette is inserted into the cassettestage, even when the small-size tape cassette is carelessly violentlypushed in, the cassette guide and the cassette stoppers are preventedfrom being deviated from the normal position in the cassette stagebecause there never occurs any deformation such as distortion or thelike in the pair of right and left stopper blocks. Therefore, whenplural types of tape cassettes which are different in size areselectively inserted into the cassette stage, any tape cassette of thesetape cassettes can be easily inserted, and any tape cassette can beaccurately positioned in the cassette stage, so that the loading miss ofthe plural tape cassettes can be prevented beforehand.

According to the seventeenth aspect of the present invention, thesupporting pins of the pair of right and left stopper blocks are set inthe range of 0 to 90 degrees with respect to the insertion direction.Therefore, when the small-size tape cassette is positioned to theinsertion reference position by the pair of right and left cassettestoppers, the pair of right and left stopper blocks are hardly escaped,and thus the small-size tape cassette can be positioned with highprecision.

According to the eighteenth aspect of the present invention, the pair ofright and left stopper blocks are formed with slant surfaces for escapefrom the large-size tape cassette. Therefore, not only the force of therotational urging means can be weakened, but also the insertion of thelarge-size tape cassette into the cassette stage can be easily performedwith weak force.

According to the nineteenth aspect of the present invention, the pair ofright and left stopper blocks are freely rotatably secured to the lowerportion of the bottom plate of the cassette stage by the pair of rightand left supporting pins disposed at the outside of these stopper blocksin the right and left directions, and the cassette guides and thecassette stoppers are offset upwardly from the pair of right and leftsupporting pins in such a state that the cassette guides and thecassette stoppers of the pair of right and left stopper blocks areprojected to the upper side of the bottom plate by the pair of right andleft rotational urging means. Therefore, when the small-size tapecassette is positioned to the insertion reference position by thecassette guide of the pair of right and left stopper blocks, the pair ofright and left stopper blocks are upwardly rotationally urged, and thusthey are not escaped downwardly, so that the small-size tape cassettecan be positioned with high precision.

What is claimed is:
 1. A cassette type recording/reproducing apparatusincluding: a cassette insertion port formed on a front panel; a cassettestage which is reciprocatively moved between a cassette insertionposition at which a tape cassette is inserted from said cassetteinsertion port, and a cassette mount position at which the inserted tapecassette is subjected to recording/reproducing operation; a cassettepress member which is secured to said cassette stage and adapted topress a tape cassette from the upper side thereof at a position which isnearer to a cassette discharge direction side than the front lid of thetape cassette, the tape cassette being inserted from said cassetteinsertion port into said cassette stage; a cassette slant insertionpreventing stopper which is secured to said cassette stage and adaptedto relatively press a front lid portion of a tape cassette from theupper side thereof, the tape cassette being inserted from said cassetteinsertion port into said cassette stage, whereby the tape cassette isprevented from being obliquely inserted in a forward and upwarddirection into said cassette stage and wherein said cassette slantinsertion preventing stopper is freely rotatably secured to a frontlid/closinglever which is freely rotatably secured to said cassettestage; and a cassette slant insertion preventing mechanism for movingsaid cassette slant insertion preventing stopper to the upper side ofsaid cassette stage when said cassette stage is moved from the cassetteinsertion port to the cassette mount position.
 2. The cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein saidcassette slant insertion preventing stopper is burrowed into the lowerside of a top plate of a chassis when said cassette stage is moved tothe cassette insertion position.
 3. The cassette typerecording/reproducing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein saidcassette slant insertion preventing stopper is escaped onto a mounttable of said cassette stage when said cassette stage is moved to thecassette mount position.